Even if you bank at a small regional bank, you likely have free access to your account information online. Banks offer services online both to provide a better customer experience, and, most importantly, because these services allow the bank to do its job more efficiently. You probably already take advantage of online banking to pay your bills electronically and to periodically transfer money into your savings account (good budget suggestion), but there are many other things you can do with online banking, and we've compiled a list to help you make the most of it.
Schedule payments
If you spend a little more time looking at bill payment options, you'll find you can automatically schedule payments and even specify the number of payments you have remaining, all through online banking. In terms of making sure your monthly payments get there on time, most online payment services are set up to let you specify the date of delivery. This delivery date often comes with a guarantee that the payment will be delivered by that date to make sure that your account doesn't go into the red. Also, some national payees will be tied directly into the online banking interface, which can mean the payment can be applied instantly or take just one to two business days to be delivered, rather than five to seven.
Account transfers
Transferring money between your checking and savings accounts is one of the first things you can do with online banking. For advanced online banking users, you may want to do some research to see which other electronic payments are offered by your bank, particularly when it comes to outside accounts. For example, some banking solutions allow you to e-mail money to friends or family, or even send money via a cell phone. It may also be possible to initiate wire transfers to yourself or third parties simply by filling out a form online and then confirming via an e-mail. More practical activities may include linking to your brokerage account or IRA account and quickly moving money into these venues without the hassle of writing a check, mailing it in and waiting for it to clear.
Order supplies
If you browse through your online banking interface, you will find that you may not even have to step inside a branch to order the supplies you need. Most banks will let you order things like deposit slips, checks, additional debit cards, and even old statement copies online. In many cases, they'll send you the supplies at no charge. It might take a couple of extra days to get these items in the mail, but it sure beats trying to make it to the bank before closing hours and waiting in line.
Download transactions
If you're up to speed with your online banking, you should be using a software program like Quicken or Mint.com to monitor your finances and help you budget. Most financial institutions are directly tied to these software programs and it's very easy to have Quicken automatically update your account balances and transactions every day. If you're just getting one of these software programs, you should be able to export the data from your online bank account, and it should come out in a format that can easily be imported into your new program. Automatic transaction downloading makes reconciling a breeze -- as every charge is already posted and included, as are the proper date ranges. Additionally, if you're looking for a transaction or want to get a summary of activity for a given period of time, or review spending in specific categories, you can often specify this search criteria. Even if you can't filter by certain items, you can export the data into an Excel spreadsheet that is relatively easy to manipulate.
banking in the digital age
The next time you login to your online banking account, take a few extra moments to browse through all of the links and sections within the interface. You should quickly find your bank offers you access to more services online than you originally knew about -- services that could make your life a whole lot easier if you use them properly.
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