| Product: |
High Street or Online? |
| Date: |
27/09/01 (155 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: See op
Disadvantages: See op
High Street or Online – now there’s a question? And one which I shall endeavour to answer!
I have given some thought as to the presentation of this opinion and I think the best way is to list each bank facility and the pros and cons of both Online and High Street usage.
1. The most important thing with any bank is security. You don’t suddenly want all your hard-earned cash to disappear now do you?
The main High Street banks have got this one pretty well sewn up. They have all been around since Adam was a lad (as my dad says) and you know that your money will be safe there, well as safe as it possibly can be anyway.
Online banking is a lesser-known quantity and for that reason can sometimes feel less secure. I know that when I left work and had my payment in lieu of notice and I put it into my Egg account, I didn’t feel completely happy until it had actually arrived Online and I could see my balance on my PC screen.
2. Once the money is in the account you may need to withdraw it. (May? Who am I kidding?) If you’re really lucky you may also receive money which you need to pay in!
For this facility you just have to leave the comfort of your armchair! Withdrawing money has to be via an ATM owned by your bank, at an ATM owned by another bank, which is ‘linked’ to your bank or using the supermarket cashback facility. This last facility is ideal if you can’t get to the nearest ATM – you just pay for your shopping using your bankcard and ask for cashback as well.
Depositing money has to be at the actual bank or, if it is notes and/or cheques only, at an ATM with a paying in facility.
Obviously you can’t get cashback from your PC so I won’t even go there!
3. You may wish to transfer the money in your account to another bank or another account. I include the payment of bills in this section.
You can write a cheque and fill ou
t a paying in slip for the account to which you intend to transfer the money and physically take it either to your own bank or to the bank receiving the payment. This of course may not be convenient for one reason or another.
This is where the Online banking facility really comes into its own as far as I am concerned. I can just log into my account and do any transfers from the study at home, complete with a cup of tea! I don’t have to make a special journey to the bank, I don’t even have to get dressed if I don’t want to! Oh dear that sounds bad, let me explain. What I mean is I can do my banking in my jim jams as they say on the adverts!
4. You may wish to contact your bank about a particular service, change a Standing Order payment, or increase your overdraft facility.
Again you can make a trip to your local branch and talk to an advisor on a one to one basis. This means that any supplementary questions can be answered there and then.
If you look at the Online banking services the sites usually have a lot of information about all the different services which the bank provide and you may well be able to find the answer you want there. If not there will be a contact facility within the site and you can contact someone at your bank via e mail. This will obviously take more time than a one to one conversation as each question and answer may lead to a further question and there will be the inevitable time delay associated with e-mail.
So you see there will always be pros and cons to either way of working you just have to work out what is best for you personally.
I use the Online facilities for all my transfers and my main bill payments are set up as Direct debits so they’re already taken care of.
I use the bank counter for paying in bags of loose change to my ISA and the bank paying in machine for paying in cheques and/or cash.
I get cash either from the supermarket or ATM,
whichever is most convenient at the time.
Summary:
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