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ECT News Community   »   E-Commerce Times Talkback   »   Re: Web Banking Makes Friends, One at a Time



Re: Web Banking Makes Friends, One at a Time
Posted by: Keith Regan 2001-09-26 17:36:12
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I don't bank online. And until recently, I didn't know a lot of people who did. But
lately, people who bank online are everywhere and they're not afraid to admit it.
Not only that, they are, to a person, happy customers.


When someone gives you, completely unsolicited, a glowing review of online banking, you
know those bankers must be doing something right. And that's good news for an industry
that everyone thought would have taken off long before now.


Re: Web Banking Makes Friends, One at a Time
Posted by: Marvin George 2001-09-26 18:55:51 In reply to: Keith Regan
I would take exception to online bill paying. A number of merchants have bill paying on their site, which is mainly credit card companies and Allstate. You put in check routing and account into their database. You then click on the amount you want to pay and they cause an ACH transaction to be posted on your check account. They give you a confirmation you can print out.

There is a lot of merchants I call up and give my debit card number and the bill is paid. My mortgage with GMAC mortgage allows for payment over the Internet on their website. This allows people not to worry about their payment being recorded on their account and no late charges. The services I have mentioned is free and not worry about the merchant getting the payment. I am down to about 7 stamps a month on bills to be paid.

Why should I use the service when I could get it for free and can bring closer to the due date? I don't putting five days before it is due. It will die a natural death. In the case of GMAC the service is so popular that they are thinking of closing some of their payment centers and some of the credit card companies are thinking about reduction of the payment center as people are paying their bills on their web site.

I advise you think what the people will do. More companies will put bill paying for their customers on their web site as they see the saving accomplished by their competitors.


Re: Web Banking Makes Friends, One at a Time
Posted by: Tom 2001-09-27 13:05:52 In reply to: Marvin George
I have been banking online for quite some time now, and I love every bit of it! I have interest-bearing checking, free online bill-pay, one-stop account consolidation (so I can see my brick-and-mortar accounts, along with my credit card accounts) all in one place. And the nice thing about this is the time it saves me every month.

I know there are a lot of places out there where you can set up automatic payments to be pulled directly from your account, or where you can call and have them deduct it from a credit/debit card, but that takes time to make the call or go online to various sites to make the payment. I know with most credit card sites that allow online payment, they still say to process it 5 days in advance of the due date, which saves you nothing.

And, once you've been paying online for a while, you find out exactly how long things take to get to their destination, and can work the system, much like you would with checks.

I would suggest to anyone to check out NetBank.Com as a model for what an online bank should be.

Good luck!

-Tom


Re: Web Banking Makes Friends, One at a Time
Posted by: Arik 2001-09-27 14:43:46 In reply to: Tom
One big misconception about bill pay is the due dates. There are two types of online bill pay. One is the crappy one that most banks have (NetBank, AmericanExpress, SFNB, FirstBank and most Brick and Mortars). These banks make you say the date you want them to send the bill and then they deduct the money from your account. This is crap! They make a ton of money doing this because they carry the float on your money. If a bank does this, switch!

In the other type of bill pay, you specify when you want the bill to arrive. The money doesn't come out of your account until the bill is paid. Wingspan did this, but they have been rolled back into their parent (I am still upset about this). The only other bank I've been able to find that does this is E*Trade bank. I just moved all my money over to them, and I'll let you know how it goes. Until banks start implementing this policy, screw em! Don't use bill pay. I am a big fan of online banking though - high interest rates, good service, low/no fees.


Re: Web Banking Makes Friends, One at a Time
Posted by: Tom 2001-10-02 12:21:48 In reply to: Arik
Yeah, that's the one thing I don't like about Netbank, but I'm willing to live with it for now. And, for the most part, my payments are arriving within 2 days of the day I select to send the payment. If the float keeps it free to me, I'm fine with that. I don't keep a major balance in this account, so it wouldn't make that much of a difference.
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