Online banking or phone banking?
Tuesday September 30, 2008
Many online banking accounts give users both online banking and phone banking options for account access. The question is, with 3G mobiles providing Internet access even when away from a fixed connection, is there ever a time when phone banking is preferable to online banking?
There are some advantages to each kind of banking and each has disadvantages. Online banking has the advantages of allowing you to very quickly perform many different activities. You can make online bill payments, transfer money and even respond to offers for new services with some online banking facilities. The number of times you use online banking each month is also unlikely to affect the cost of your Internet usage, as the amount of data required to load banking sites is usually quite negligible. Unfortunately, this comes with the risk of phishing scams and the necessity of ensuring you are using a secure systems for safe Internet banking. Getting started with online banking can be difficult for some people as well, as there are rarely as detailed instructions for online banking tools as there are for phone banking.
Phone banking has advantages in ease of use and security concerns. While it is possible to be defrauded while using phone banking, the effort someone would have to go to in order defraud you makes it unlikely to happen. As you do not need to scan a system in order to conduct phone banking, it can be quite quick to access. The downsides then come up in the costs of access and the time it takes to conduct multiple points of business. Phone banking can cost you for every call you make depending on the institution and as it requires you to follow prompts, you can be quite delayed in even just transferring money.
When you are unsure about the security of a system and do not need to do much, phone banking can be a good option. In most cases, however, online banking is much more convenient and cost effective for your home banking needs.
Please visit our comparison page to compare savings and high interest accounts that can be used for online banking.
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