Do you bank online?

Didn't know where to put this, so I put it in this forum. I don't bank online. Have been very leary of it. However, I am so tired of drowning in paperwork, bills and handwritten checks, it's becoming more tempting. What got me to reconsider was I'm hearing more and more people do it and have had no security issues. Also, my mother recently was in a large, university hospital in Chicago. Amazing what they're doing now with laptops. Not once in her ten day stay did I see a chart with written notes on it. Every room, from ICU to regular, had notebook computers. All notes, charting, progress, physician's orders, etc. was input into the laptop. It was all very streamlined and there was no confusion trying to decipher a physician's handwriting and what appealed to me most: no paper clutter anywhere. I would love my home office to function in such an organized, no clutter fashion.

So the tempation to pay bills online is definately growing.

So I'm looking for input: pros, cons, personal experiences, etc. TIA ~Kat

Its fine with me I do all of my banking and bill paying online where possible.Its all encrypted so its more secure than doing it over an open line on the phone,a lot quicker and less tyresome than standing in a queue having gone round the car park three times to find a space :rolleyes: :D

I've been banking and dealing with credit cards and paying bills online for many years. Never had a problem. It's very fast and convenient and you can download records/spreadsheets for taxes etc too.

Just use a good password with upper and lower case letters and numbers too. Something that no one would be able to guess with at least 10 characters (Don't use real words or birthdates or names etc)

I love it!

Thanks for the opinions! One more question I forgot to ask. Probably sounds ignorant, I've never even activated my online account, so not sure how the process works. Do you just pay your bills online via your online account, and assign a payee? Or do you use a program such as Quicken or M$ Money to do it? (I use Quicken for taxes, but that's about it. )

It probably depends on the specific banks format but in my case I set up an acc't with each of my payees via an id number they give me... could be a billing number, an acc't number, credit card no. etc. then I just enter an am't next to the name of the company, press "pay" and the deal is done. All records are retrievable in various formats, in my case

Intuit Quicken 2002 and higher
Microsoft Money 98 and higher
Intuit Quickbooks 7 and higher
Simply Accounting 7.0 and higher
Spreadsheet (CSV)

I was doubtful at first but I gradually got used to it; now I can't imagine doing it the old way. You can pay bills whenever you want to; your cash flow is improved--you can pay almost until the last minute, and most payees credit or debit your account within 24 hours; no more allowing 7 days for the mail to deliver payments and fewer stamps to buy; and the convenience is unbeatable. I print out receipts for all transactions so I have a date-stamped proof of payment with the payment confirmation number included. I prefer to pay all creditors directly, rather than through my bank, unless they have no on-line pay option. I have different user names and passwords for all creditors, and the bank's info is different from any creditor. If any user info was ever to fall into the wrong hands the damage would be limited to that account only rather than "putting all my eggs in one basket." By all means, try it!

Oh yeah, that's another thing. You can set up post dated payments as well. Say you're going to be away for an extended period of time or you have a repeating bill that needs to be paid every month (like your ISP) and you don't want to be bothered to do it every time you can set up a schedule to pay bills that way too. very convenient.

2 other things I felt might be worth mentioning...

1st, even though you aren't e-banking, your bank (and everyone else's) has been online for a very long time. Your info is available to all your banks branches, at every employee's terminal. And all banks use the web to transfer this data around. So adding your PC to the mix would not radically change things. (I know this may seem glaringly obvious but many of us forget our info is already all over the web on a daily basis.)

That said, the addition of your PC could be the weakest link in this secure chain. It's important that you keep your PC clean from malware. A fully patched Windows OS, up to date antivirus, a properly setup and tested firewall (check yours at the Shields Up test https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 ), a safely configured browser, adware/spyware scanners like Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy and so forth. That and (as already mentioned above) a good, lengthy, hard to guess password...

Yep, I love online banking, I wouldn't do it any other way now.

But as Han says, you do need to pay attention to security. And I definitely wouldn't advise logging into your bank from any other computer except your own.

NEVER reply to, or go to a web site, in response to an email that requests personal information. "Phishers" may claim your account has been compromised, or they need to update their files, etc. They set up web sites that look like your bank's site (or credit card, etc) and disguise the URL.

WHat Jerry said. If you have any doubt, use the link in your faves, or type the url yourself. Don't click any links in an email

I have been using Money 98 now since....... 1998 ( who'da thunkit..),, and i love it.,

I put all ,my debit/cash/cheque purchases into categories within the 'chequebook, and when I get home , from shopping I log on to my bank site ,and sit for a few minutes and type in all the amounts I spent, out of what account, what the means of payment was.. cash /debit / or cheque. then categorize the purchase was it food / gift/ bill payment/ car maintenance/ liquor purchase etc... was the food purchase - grocery / fast food /or dining out ? .. was the car maintenance - car wash /oil change /new tires / etc etc etc etc etc..

You must do this everyday, or else it will get out of hand asnd you won't use the program properly.. Do it each day and keep it UP TO DATE ..
then you can ask your self.. how much have I spent on fast food this month?
when was the last time I got a haircut ( that would be under heath / haircut ..

How much did I spend on that oil change 3 months ago???

It took me a number of years to get my categories just perfect..,and I know where every penny goes each month., and ...If I just withdraw cash and spend it 'nilly dilly' everywhere.., I put in : cash withdrawal / household-expenses .

At the end of the year on January 1st ., backup the whole '.mny program ' on a cd , and then delete only the opening page of the money cheque book called the 'account manager' you have to right click each of your banking chequebooks ( I use three /institutions-banks ), and by doing that , you can then create your new or existing banking institutions at that point, typing in the details and balance of each., therefore when you go into each account - the history is new and fresh and empty for the new year, and ALL OF YOUR categories are still there from last year., then when you close off, you save it it to a new name e.g. 'checkbooks06' .....

Hope this tutorial helps..

Adding to what Jerry and JPnyc said, phishers can be very convincing. I had one recently from "Bank of America" that was too real not to believe. Thank God for Yankee caution. I entered fake information (user name, passcode) and did not get an error page. A legitimate correspondence wouldn't accept wrong info...for that matter a legitimate correspondence wouldn't ask for it, period.

I usually file those out with :
First name Ura
Surname Ass
Address 1 knowwhere ulive :D