The Electronic Banking Association (EBA) is a non-profit organization
established to do one simple thing-help more people get started with electronic
banking. Here's why. Who taught you how to write paper checks? Probably your
parent's right? Well, who's going to teach you how to write electronic checks?
Probably NOT your parents. That's where they come in. E-banking is so much more
convenient and so much quicker that everyone should know about it. The EBA was
established as an independent source of helpful information about electronic
banking for consumers and businesses. Financial institutions, merchants, and
other financial service firms actually provide financial e-commerce services,
but the Electronic Banking Association (EBA) monitors progress in the financial
e-commerce industry and provides information that will enable users of those
services to become better informed and to locate providers of the services they
seek. Everyone hates paying bills. It's time-consuming, frustrating, and you
have to lick that awful envelope glue. But not with e-banking. You'll spend less
time paying bills, and more time doing fun stuff. Here are some advantages to
e-banking: - No more paper checks. Your computer remembers who you write checks
to. You simply enter an amount then point-and-click. You'll never run out of
checks again. - No more hassles. You can schedule your payments in advance, so
they'll get paid while you're on vacation or away on business. Electronic
payments are processed quickly, in as little as 24 hours to 5 days (unlike a
paper check sent in the mail, which takes an average of 10 days to post). - No
more envelopes to lick. No envelope glue. No paper cuts on your tongue. And you
can stop writing your return address again, and again, and again. - No more
writer's cramp. It takes forever to write checks and addresses every month.
E-banking cuts that time to practically nothing. - No more stamps. With
e-banking, there's no postage and your bills are processed quickly - whenever
you want them paid. You can pay your bills online, so it only makes sense to
receive them that way, too. This is called "Electronic Bill
Presentment," and more and more businesses are going to offer it. - No more
lost bills. Your dog can't eat electronic bills. Your kids can't misplace them.
And you can't lose them under a stack of catalogs. - Pay bills when you want to.
Not when the post office decides to deliver them. Click to see it. Click to pay
it. Your bills appear right on your computer screen and look much like the
printed bills you are used to getting. But the difference is you can pay them
with just the click of a mouse. - Better record keeping. All your billing and
payment information is kept in one convenient location, not in messy cardboard
boxes or goodness only knows where else. You can pay your bills online, so it
only makes sense to receive them that way, too. This is called "Electronic
Bill Presentment," and more and more businesses are going to offer it. In
addition to paying bills online, you can get current information any time you
want it. So you can get up-to-date account balances, transfer funds, obtain
information about check clearing; all sorts of things. You can import this
information directly into today's popular financial management programs such as
QuickenŽ without having to re-enter it. You buy things all the time with credit
cards, right? Well then, those are electronic transactions just like these.
Today's latest Web browsers have sophisticated encryption that's very secure.
What's more, electronic checks are safer than having paper checks lying around
where anyone can obtain and misuse your account information. Experts predict it
would take a hacker over 2,000 years to crack 56-bit encryption. Yet many
financial institutions today require a browser that supports 128-bit encryption,
which would take about 12,710,204,652,610,000,000,000,000 years to crack. Now
that's secure. (Source: Byte Magazine) When you're ready to open an e-banking
account, you can receive more information on security, as well as a recent
browser that supports 128-bit encryption, through your financial institution or
at the Netscape and Microsoft Web sites. In the time it takes you to pay your
bills the old-fashioned way, you can be up and running with e-banking. Best of
all, once you enter who you pay bills to, you'll never have to re-enter that
information. Your financial institution may offer e-banking via the Web or a
personal financial manager or both. Web-based e-banking is generally easier and
quicker to set up. All you'll need is a recent browser that supports U.S.
encryption. To use your financial institution's personal finance manager, you'll
need the software from that institution. How to set up an online account (You'll
need a checking account established with the financial institution first.): 1.
Have important information handy (account numbers, driver's license, social
security number, credit card numbers, employer contact info, previous address).
2. Go to your financial institution's web site. 3. Click to the e-banking page
of the site. 4. Fill out and submit the online e-banking enrollment form. 5.
Within a few days your financial institution will send you a e-banking start-up
package that will contain a user ID, password and web site address with
instructions on how to begin e-banking. That's all there is to it! You'll be
amazed how convenient e-banking is. Try it once, and you'll never go back.