Advantages & Disadvantages of Online Banking

ADVANTAGES:

• It is cost-saving, time-saving and convenient way of banking.
• It is accessible all the time and operative from anywhere.
• Risks associated with stolen cheques and forged signatures are avoided.
• Makes possible to do online shopping.
• Generally online banks offer higher interest rates on deposits than brick and mortar banks as they save fixed cost associated with the maintenance of buildings and manpower.
• There is less chance of confidentiality of your account status and transactions being compromised as there is minimum human interference with the transactions conducted online.
• Transfer funds between your accounts of different classification so that you gain maximum returns on your deposit.



DISADVANTAGES

• Though online banking portal is secure and user friendly, there are people who are beginners in using internet and therefore are exposed to the dangers of stolen passwords and website phishing. This especially holds true when you are using public computers.
• Many times you face issues conducting day to day banking activities. You feel the need to resolve issues by discussing them with banker. Contacting representative of an online bank can be a hassle as compared contacting banker in a brick and mortar bank who always have customer service desk dedicated for this purpose.
• Many type of online transactions take upto 3 to 4 days to settle, especially when you make deposit by mailing cheques.
• Before making an investment decision you need to gain in-depth knowledge of all the saving/investment products on the offer with pros and cons of each one. Some banking terminologies and concepts can be tricky to laymen and require elaboration. In such situations, you get a satisfying reply from a professional banker by meeting him in personal rather than from faq’s available online.
• When online link goes down, you cannot resort to any alternative system to get your transactions processed.