Essay, Research Paper: Eletronic Banking

Corey Melke
5/2/99 BUS 256
Mr. Hunkins
ELECTRONIC BANKING
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 Quicken® 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.


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