Online banking basics for empty nesters

Online banking makes managing your money much easier.

Online banking can simplify your banking needs. As empty nesters, online banking may be new to you. Once you learn the basics, you can find that online banking makes your financial life much more convenient.

Online banking basics
Most major banks offer free online banking. Even most small banks offer some form of it – perhaps the ability to check your balance and history online. Most full-service online banking has the following characteristics.

• You can check your account balance and history.
• Images of your checks that have cleared are available for viewing.
• Transferring funds between eligible accounts is easy.
• You can view your statements online.
• Online banking is a great tool to pay your bills.

Checking your balance and history are great conveniences provided by online banking.  Anytime throughout the month, at any time of the day or night, you can check to see which transactions have cleared.  Online banking makes it simple to stay on top of your checking account.

You can even transfer funds from one account to another through online banking.  Say you have a savings account tied to your checking account.  Through online banking, you can transfer money from your savings to your checking account with a simple click of the mouse.

Online bill payment may be perhaps the most useful feature of online banking.  This is a feature that may be new to you.  Once you learn it, you will wonder how you ever paid bills without it.  It greatly cuts down the amount of time that you spend having to pay bills.  Once you are set up, it takes just a few clicks of the mouse to have your bills paid.

Getting started
First, be sure that your bank offers online banking.  Almost all major banks do as well as many smaller and local banks.  A great feature offered by many banks is a demo to explain exactly how to get started and what all is involved with online banking.  Your first step should be to watch the demo so you can get a feel for online banking.  Your next step is to set up online bill pay.  The next time that you need to pay bills, gather them all up and go to your computer.  Follow your bank’s online instructions for setting up the bill pay.  You can even have the bank pay some bills automatically on a specific date. 
 
Staying secure
Security is usually a big concern for many newcomers to online banking.  Banks have taken great measures to ensure the safety of their customers online.  For example, sites use encryption to protect information from outsiders.  Encryption basically means that as information is sent back and forth on the site, it is scrambled.  This is a successful safety feature.  Also, with online banking, if you have been inactive for a period, usually 10 minutes, the site automatically signs you out. 

Banks take even more measures to protect your security with online banking.  In most cases, you are not liable for unauthorized activity on your account online.  Also, with online bill pay, if the bank makes a mistake and does not pay the bill on time, in most cases the bank takes care of the late fee.

There are some additional steps you can take to help with security for online banking:

• Never share your password or account login with anyone.  Never, ever, pass that information along in an e-mail or respond to an e-mail asking for it.  This is a common scam.
• Keep on top of your account activity.  Immediately report anything that looks suspicious.
• When you are finished with your session of online banking, logout.  To be even more secure, you can close your browser to make sure that the pages you were looking at are cleared.

As empty nesters, you can find online banking to be very convenient.  It is easy, a time-saver, and the way of the future.  You may wonder how you every lived without it.

Related Topics:

• Managing your money
• Mortgages
• Smarter Spending
• Using your home equity