The days have gone where you must be present in the queue and should move on at snail’s pace towards your allotted counter to get a service from your Bank. It was also possible so many times that you have to get prepared for a half- day leave to your office in order to pay your bills at the Bank. Nowadays you need not attend Bank physically by person for most of the transactions. Internet Banking has been the order of the day. For most of the services like paying your regular bills such as Power, Water, Mobile, Internet and Landline Telephone bills, you can just sit at home in front of your computer and pay through Online Banking / Internet Banking. Most of the banks in India are offering Internet Banking services to their customers.
You can make following transactions through Online Banking facility of any bank… 1. Can pay most of the bills electronically (For example: Telephone / Mobile Bills, Power Consumption Bills, Internet Connection / Broad band bill etc.) 2. Can apply for loans, some examinations and new services from the Bank. 3. You can also invest in the stock market by transferring funds from your Bank account to Online Trading Account. 4. You can purchase house hold items online from Online Marketing Services etc.
It’s all fine till now. There is another side to the coin. Please remember that any modern facility or service may not available completely free of cost and 100 % risk free! So, you must be very careful while making payments, requests and any other transactions through Internet Banking. Security loopholes in the operating system and attacks like Trojan horses have become major threats to Online Banking. Even though there are so many protective measures like PIN, TAN and MFA, huge losses have been reported due to frauds.
One must follow their own security measures as well along with those provided by respective Banks. 1. You must take extra care while using your email. Think twice / thrice before opening any unknown attachments. 2. Thousands of software applications available on internet for free of cost. Free software downloads also big cause of concern with regard to Internet security. Keep doing extra research while downloading and running any free software and try to get authentication of the software by respective service provider.
You can post your experiences with Internet Banking in the comment form. You can also suggest some tips for the benefit of fellow readers.