Pros and Cons of Internet Banking

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Pros and Cons of Internet Banking

When looking at the pros and cons of internet banking, you're going to have to admit to yourself that internet banking is going to be the future. In the decades to come, traditional forms of banking will seem to belong to the stone age as banking moves from a physical, stand-in-the-line process, to one that is conducted across the ether via the world wide web.

So, lets look at the pros first, the biggest being that if you get into internet banking now, you are effectively preparing yourself for the inevitable changes in years to come.

Secondly, internet banking, when working properly, is a joy. Your desktop computer, laptop, or indeed increasingly in the future, your mobile phone, becomes the gateway to your account. No more standing in a line waiting for Cashier Number Six, you can via your computer swap funds from account to account, pay friends and family, pay bills, set-up direct debits and standing orders, transfer money aboard, apply for loans, take-out credit cards, and order statements, and new cheque/paying-in books.

Brilliant. So why do people still go to their branch? And now come the cons.

We are not yet in a digital cash age (it will come, but until you can confidently predict that virtually everyone in the western world is not only computer literate, but has a computer connected to the internet, then cash will stay around). Because, of course, no-one has yet devised a way of stuffing notes into your computer which miraculously appear in your account. And it's not only cash, there are unfortunately still quite a few things you have to do at the branch, not least showing your identification papers. Banks don't really take much on trust these days either, so proving who you are can be an onerous task, needing two types of id, one saying that you actually exist, the other proving where you live.

And then there's that one big elephant in the room that financial institutions prefer not to mention: cybercrime. If you internet bank you open yourself up to all kinds of malicious attacks from people determined to part you with your money. Online fraud is extremely sophisticated and should you fall for a trick (either a con, or someone establishing a virus on your machine which reports back your personal account details), then you could find your account drained in seconds. The banks fight a constant battle against online fraud and some of their attempts to keep your money safe, can make a simple system like online banking, be like to trying to get into a virtual Fort Knox, when even your own accounts become inaccessible to you.

So, internet banking is a good thing, and its use will become more widespread over the years, but it is a system which is still fraught with problems.