 | Mark Kolarik is the President of the Kansas Teachers Community Credit Union, located in Pittsburg, KS, since 10-2002 and is a board member of the Kansas Corporate Credit Union located in Wichita, KS . He has been employed in the financial service industry for the last 31 years, having worked in several credit unions for 21years and 10 years in the banking industry. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and is a Certificated Credit Union Executive. |
Banking & Finance
2011-05-01 13:04:00
Online banking - is it safe?
Question: What is online banking and is it safe?
Answer: Making sure your money is where it’s suppose to be, when it’s supposed to be there, is getting simpler all the time with online banking. If you overlook online banking services, you’re missing opportunities to make your life easier and safer. You can handle personal finances when you choose to and can do so with efficiency, privacy and accuracy.
You can:
•Monitor your account balances
and track transactions
•Get immediate access to account
information
You can reconcile your account whenever you
choose to. No need to wait
a whole month to receive your statement.
•Routinely pay bills on time
That’s the strongest contributor to a
stellar credit record, and that’s
your best way to earn the lowest
borrowing rates. Plus, you never
need to worry about incurring
late-payment fees or interest rate
penalty hike for late payments. Paying bills online is one the biggest time-savers online banking creates. You enter account information such as the merchant’s name, address and so on when you sign up for the services, then return to the site to pay a bill with a mouse click. You also might be able to set up automated payments to handle recurring bills, such as insurance premiums or utility bills.
•Cut costs
You will purchase fewer paper checks, as well as eliminate the need for stamps and envelopes.
•Automate other functions to save time and help you achieve financial goals
For example, you can move funds automatically from checking to savings to help reach the goal of, say, a down payment on a house.
•See details of checks you have written, so you can verify the recipient, date, and amount
If instance, if you forget to record the amount of a debit card purchase, online banking allows you to retrieve a current statement listing the transaction.
Safeguard your accounts. Studies show that most identity theft still occurs when thieves obtain information on paper by digging through trash cans or stealing from mailboxes. Online banking protects you from many types of fraud. You will reduce that risk when you receive electronic statements or send payments online.
To stay safe:
•Monitor accounts and debit and
credit card activity daily to quickly
catch and counter attempts to transfer funds or make
unauthorized purchases.
•Change online passwords frequently. Avoid telling your password to anyone.
•Never respond to e-mail
purporting to be from a financial
institution requesting account or
password information. We never
will ask for this information by
e-mail or phone; it’s already on file.
•Make sure the secure area of the site – those Web pages you access after you log in with your password – always has “https” at the beginning of the address at the top of every page, and a padlock on the browser frame, not within the page.
•Never share personal account information in e-mails.
•Install and keep updated a personal firewall and antivirus software.
