|
When choosing an online bank the top 10 things
to look for:
1. Interest Rates- Obviously, the higher the better! Check
our rate chart for the latest rates.
2. ATM Rebates- This can usually out rank rates, if you
you have under $10,000 in your savings account. If you are like
most people, you use your ATM card 5 times a month at $2.00 a pop,
that starts to eat away at your interest real quick.
3. Security- Security is a huge issue for most people. Security
of most online banks is outstanding. There are still a number of
banks that are behind times. I find the most secure banks are those
that are also difficult for the account holder to enter. When looking
for online banking you should look for a system which consists of
more than just the username and password. The industry standard
now is image based technology. Beyond the simple user name and password,
you should also have to input a PIN number of some kind using your
mouse. Many banks now offer security customization. In this system
you do not only have a username, password, and image based input.
You would also have to answer a series of personal questions. In
some cases, banks will display an image or message of your choice
to recertify that you are at the correct location.
4. Guarantees- Many banks need customers to feel safe. In
order to do so banks will offer guarantees, such as 100% fraud protection.
In this case any unauthorized use of your account is fully protected.
This is the ultimate form protection even beyond security of this
site. I personally choose to do my business only with banks that
offer this form will guarantee.
5. Identity Theft Assistance- Many customers will say great
you have security in a guarantee that my money will not be stolen
from me. But if a hacker gets a hold of my personal information,
there to be ramifications be on just my account. To ease the worry
of this some banks are now starting to offer identity theft assistance.
If you are a victim of identity theft, they will assist you in recovery.
This is a beautiful feature and I hope the trend of this continues
on from bank to bank.
6. Bill Pay- This allows you to pay common billers payments
electronically. Bill Pay, while a nonessential feature, is a great
feature to have. In many cases you can deflect late payments or
repeated payments to common utilities and services. In effect it
saves you on stamps, envelopes, and late fees. It also gives you
peace of mind that your payments will be on time.
7. Easy of Use- One of the biggest reasons that people don't
online bank, secondary to security, is easy use. In some cases,
people are afraid to make mistakes which would cost them money.
Most banks have gotten their act together. It's difficult to know
who offers a user unfriendly site until it's too late and you already
have an account with them. The best way to judge ease-of-use simply
look at reviews of the bank by well known trusted sources and in
some cases just googling a name and see what the chatter is on the
message boards.
8. Do they allow you to create sub-accounts?- Many of us
like to layer our bank accounts and thereby opening several accounts.
Many online banks allow you to layer accounts without opening separate
accounts. For instance, I have one account and have broken the funds
down to a section for my house, for each of my children, and a section
for emergencies. This is a wonderful feature which basically takes
the people working out of separate accounts.
9. Automatic Deposits- Remember the old Christmas club savings
accounts? Really nothing was spectacular about them, in fact the
rates for less than average in most cases. Well you can set up a
Christmas club savings without any extra work while still getting
your same interest rate. Many online banks will provide a checking
account to your savings account. While doing so they will I you
take fixed amounts of money out of the checking account on periodic
schedule that you set. This thereby forces you to save. If you're
undisciplined is a pretty good feature to have.
10. Multiple account linking- just about every online bank
ever come across allows you to high a checking account to your online
money market or savings account. All banks to have a limit on the
number of accounts you can link to. If you are a business owner
having the ability to link to your personal and business accounts
is a big deal. Make sure that the bank you are deciding on allows
you to link to the minimum number of banks you need.
|