FAQs on Internet Banking

Banking is no longer confined to the traditional brick and mortar branches. Customers are being provided with multiple modes of accessing banking transactions, including Mobile Banking, banking through ATM and Point of Sales terminals and now Internet Banking.

What is Internet banking?
Internet Banking is a means by which customers can manage their bank accounts and conduct real time banking transactions electronically over the Internet. Internet Banking gives customers the control over nearly every aspect of managing their bank accounts. Besides, the customers can check balances, see cheques status, transfer money from one account to another account, view transaction history and impor­tantly avoid going to an actual bank. In addition, the customer can also use Internet Banking to pay bills to service providers and also shop online.

What are the advantages of going in for Internet banking?
The advantages are many. First, there is round-the-clock, real time access. And second, one can access the bank from anywhere in the world at one's own convenience.

What are the requirements for accessing Internet banking?
The user will first need to open an account with the bank providing Internet Banking and register for the online banking facility; thereafter the bank will pro­vide the customer a unique personal password or Per­sonal Identification Number (PIN) to log into the internet banking site. There on, the customer will simply re­quire a computer and an internet access to avail the service. No additional software will be required to avail Internet Banking.

How is it actually done?
The user needs to be online and visit the bank's web site on the Internet. Then the user will have to click onto the Internet Banking section. The personal password supplied by the bank enables the user to access the bank and do any required transaction. Some banks even provides demo in their web site, to famil­iarize first-time user with Internet Banking.

What type of transactions or operations can be undertaken?
A user will be allowed to perform a vast range of trans­actions; some of these are as follows:

• Account information.
• Funds transfer.
• Online real-time payment for shopping done on Internet.
• Requests and intimations.
• Contacting/communicating with the accounts or relationship manager.
• Electronic bill payment towards utility bills.
• For business users, they can also initiate issu­ance of Bank Guarantee, Letter of Credit etc.
  

Can funds be transferred from one bank to another on-line?
Some bank has this facility and but most of the banks does not support it. But all banks can transfer funds among the various branches of the bank.

What are the safety tips I need to remember?
Online users would be safe with Internet Banking, if they abide by these rules and other online banking guidance and safety tips as provided by the bank pro­viding Internet Banking. Some safety tips are as fol­lows:

• Users will need to read the bank's web site privacy policy and fully understand and satisfy with the policy before using the internet banking site.
• Bank providing Internet Banking should provide safe­guards to protect personal information from being accessed by unauthorized persons. Online users should ensure these security mechanism are in place.
• Secure method of sending information back and forth
• Scrambled or encrypted information
• Firewall
• Password protection
• Automatic sign off after a certain period of inactivity
• If someone contacts a user via e-mail or the internet and claims to be a representative from their bank, the user by no means should give them any infor­mation. If such instances occur, the bank should be immediately contacted.
• When choosing a password, the user should avoid using easily available information like the user's mother's maiden name, birth date, the last four dig­its of the user's passport number or phone number, or a series of consecutive numbers etc. User needs to use their judgment to have a difficult password at all time and frequently change them. Password should always be heavily guarded and not disclosed to anyone, anytime.

What is e-commerce and what are its current capabilities?
E-commerce is making payments electronically. Here both the buyer and the seller will require opening an account with the bank providing Internet Banking. For availing the products/services of the seller/supplier, the buyer will make payment online and the seller will be notified instantly on such payment either through emails or SMS.

The same concept applies to online shopping, wherein the retail customer of the bank will visit the website of the online shopping portal, chose a product as displayed in the online portal and at the time of making payments, the online shopper will log into the Internet Banking website of the bank and make such payments. Electronic payment through internet is slowly expected to decrease the usage of the conventionally used system of making payments through cheques.

Can one access bank accounts through a mobile phone?
Yes, one can access banking through the SMS Banking services of the bank. SMS stands for Short Messaging Service. In SMS technology, one has to key in certain predefined "keywords", as instructed by the bank, to access the services. As the keyword is entered, the cellular service provider connects the customer to the bank, which in turn, will flash the required information on the cellular phone screen.

Unlike SMS Banking, in WAP-enabled mobile bank­ing, one actually logs on to the bank's website, as in Internet Banking and avails the full services as pro­vided by the Internet Banking.