Benefits of Online Banking

This article can also be found here.

I have been using online banking a lot more over the past year, and I have found it to be very nice and very convenient. Some things that make it stick out:

- Interest rates are often higher - Online banks don't really have as many expenses as regular brick & mortar banks, meaning they can afford to give out higher interest rates on deposited money. For example, the interesting on a savings account I have at a brick & mortar bank is less than 1%. The interest I am receiving right now at ING Direct is 4.5%. Obviously that's an enormous difference.

- Easy to use - Make bill payments, automatically transfer money, online customer service, etc. With online banks, everything is usually easier and more convenient to use.

- Safe - I'm not saying that regular banks aren't safe, but I've heard a lot of people get worried about using online banks because they don't think they're safe. In reality, that's not true at all. With different security codes and other protections, the biggest threat to your account security is someone watching you type your password and other information. It really is very secure.

So with all of these advantages and perks of online banking, I'm not sure why it isn't even more popular... it's definitely something I use right now, and will be using a lot in the future.