Beginners Guide to Internet Banking – SBI, Kotak, HDFC, ICICI, PNB

Introduction to Internet Banking

With everything being online in today’s age, we love to do all our work online, be it studies, presentations, office work, absolutely everything online. So much so that if it was in our hands, we would even do our daily chores online which, fortunately, is not possible. But even though, we still try to do every single thing that we possibly can, online. 

It’s a digital world, right? And there’s a reason that we’ve shifted towards it. It’s a lot easier, it’s a lot more time saving, it’s a lot more accessible to everyone, you don’t have to use up your energy to do that work and therefore most of the people prefer it. Another reason for it is they are already so busy in their lives that they cannot take out more time to do these things and use up the rest of the time. 

And just like everything else and to our absolute delight, even banking and managing our financial stuff has become online. Yes, we are talking about internet banking also known as online banking.  

It has been gaining popularity since a few years now and rightly so because it’s a great way to manage our finances and not have to stand up in long queues and pay all our bills through our computers and tablets. It’s also a great way to keep track of our upcoming payments and bills so we don’t miss out on important dates. 

But now let’s understand what it is, how it works, is it safe or not and how you can also do it. 

What is internet banking? 

Basically, internet banking is banking online. Now we know that wasn’t an explanation so let’s get deeper into it. Internet banking is basically getting access to your bank account but from the comfort of your homes, with the help of a computer or a tablet or a smartphone. You would log into your bank account and you can pay your bills and you can make financial transactions – all through your computer or smartphone. 

Now one, it is quite comfortable, two, you do not have to step out and stand in long queues and three, it is completely free and very easy to make those transactions and many banks also have their own customised apps that you can use to get the transactions done and it all happens quite quickly. 

Everything that you can do with Internet Banking:

1. You can access your bank details and your bank balance anytime.
2. You can make financial transactions with other accounts and you can pay bills. 
3. You can check if there is any linked account with your account and you can check your loans and your savings account and stuff like that. 
4. Basically, you don’t even need to get paper bills if you use internet banking you can just do it all on your phone.
5. You can check on the investments that you may have made with your account and even set up or cancel debits.

So now after knowing the whole lot of work that you can do with internet banking, one of the most important questions that come to the mind is, is it secure, is it safe? So let’s address it.

Is internet banking safe? Protecting Your Internet Banking Accounts

Generally, if we see then it’s quite a safer option to do the banking stuff online then it is offline. However, you still need to follow some rules and you need to make sure that all the details that you enter are correct and you are doing it all carefully.

Some rules that you should follow to protect your internet banking accounts:

• You should keep a track of your bank account, your statement and it goes without saying that if you see any unusual activity then you should immediately report it. 
• All of us have got at least one SMS or mail saying you have won the lottery or some prize and so share your personal details. 
• Just don’t reply to them.
• Always remember that after you are done using your bank account after you have done the transaction or whatever you were doing, log out from your bank account.
• Another thing that most people don’t take care of or outlook is using any Wi-Fi to access your bank account. Always be sure to use a secure Wi-Fi connection. And even better use your own internet connection only. 
• You don’t want your system or your bank account to get infected with viruses, so keep updating whether it’s your operating system, whether it’s your antivirus – always keep updating it.
• Another thing that we have told from I don’t know since when is that it’s always good to use a password that’s not easily crackable. So use a password that doesn’t really match with any of your personal information, make a unique password, and do not use the same password for more than one account, and you are sorted.

Well, these were some of the rules that you should always follow while you are banking online. Although, it is quite safe and quick and effective and you can do it very easily even if you are quite new to it. There is a lot of security but even after all of it, if still, something goes wrong or if you made a wrong transaction or if you sent money to a bank account that you were not supposed to or anything of that sort, then you should just get in touch with your bank immediately. 

Internet banking – Setting it up:

Generally, almost all banks provide internet banking services as of now. Though, you can always check if your bank provides it or not – you can go to their website and you can check if there are any details about it, you can even give them a call about it directly or you may even visit a branch of your bank. It’s all up to you.  

After you are done confirming for setting up your internet banking account there will be a few steps in the registration which are as follows:

i. You might have to visit a local branch of your bank in your city or your locality.

ii. then a password will be given to you or you will have to create a password for yourself that you will use for your internet banking services.

iii. You might also be given a security device, which is very rare and happens only in some cases, but you might have to log on to that. 

Also, it might be possible that the bank that you have a bank account in doesn’t offer the services of internet banking or maybe you are not satisfied with it. Well, in that case, you are absolutely free to choose another service provider. 

What to do without an internet connection? 

Well, no need to worry if you do not have an internet connection at your home, you can anytime head to a bank branch and access internet on a computer there or you might even use a relative’s or a friend’s home to access secure internet connection. 

What is personal financing planning? 

You are not unaware of the stream competition in every sector including the banking sector. Every Bank wants to do better than the next Bank and therefore they have many schemes and innovations and tools coming up for the general public to be attracted to them. 

One of them is personal financial planning. With this tool, a person can efficiently do his financial planning and he doesn’t even have to step out of his home and visit a bank to get it done. This is not the only feature there are many tools that banks come up with some of them are loan calculators, different forecasting tools, investment analysing tools – it basically studies all your investments carefully and tells you what is happening in the markets, some premium calculators, various budgeting tools and so on. 

All of these features out there makes a person’s work much much simpler and easier. You can get everything done with quite a breeze and they even alert you on various subjects in an effortless way.

 What is UPI? 

The full form of UPI is unified payment system. Do you remember how it used to be to deposit money into somebody else’s account before all this internet banking came along?  

Right! You had to go to your nearest bank branch, you had to fill a form to deposit money, you had to deposit money by standing in a long line and then you even had to check if the person got the money by checking the account balance. Long story short, it was such a hassle. Moreover, it was very time consuming as well as energy-draining. 

But now with all this internet banking at hand, we can deposit money into anybody else’s just as little as a click. You could be anywhere at any time of the day and you could make a transaction just like that. This is all thanks to the unified payment system. 

This system is incorporated into the banking system through the national payments cooperation of India. With UPI, we can transfer money into somebody else’s account with much ease and in no time. 

However, there are more than one ways to which money can be transferred or accepted, all of them are listed below:

1. VPA – it basically stands for virtual payment address, and it’s quite simple – all you have to do is make the transaction which is mapped by VPA, and you can transfer or request money easily. 
2. Mobile number: one of the easiest and genius ways to do internet banking is by requesting or accepting money for making a transaction which is through your cellphone number on mapped by your phone number.
3. Account number and IFSC: IFSC is a kind of code that you get and by both of these you can easily send money to your Bank account.  
4. AADHAAR Card: as simple as it sounds, you can send money and request money, you can make transactions, which is all mapped by your Aadhar card number.
5. QR code: just like every other option, with this you can send money with which is mapped with your QR code, and it either encloses your Aadhar card number or it includes your VPA or your IFSC code or maybe your mobile number. 

Just in case you were wondering, the Reserve Bank of India is the one who runs this interface and it works amazingly well, which is quite needless to say. It transfers money between two bank accounts via the internet. 

What are Loyalty Programs?

Basically, if we look at the banking sector there are mainly two things that drive them one is the services they provide and the other are the rewards and loyalty programs and stuff like that. Though it is not something like – if one exists then the other won’t, so you don’t need to worry about that. They can both exist simultaneously with one bank. 

It quite challenges the traditional methods of banking that used to be in practice before internet banking came around. It offers various programs to its customers and various rewards and profits and incentives that really attracts more customers and builds the existing customer’s trust. Another reason for it is, they are quite cost-effective options, so customers definitely like them.

Conclusion:

Digitalization has really turned the world of banking upside down but in a good way.

Everybody now seems to adapt to this new and innovative and effective way of banking and making transactions and sending money that we didn’t use to know before. 

It has really made a lot of work for a lot of people quite simpler and therefore one should really learn how to do it and how to do it effectively at that. We hope our guide helped you in that and if you have any more questions you can always put them in the comments section.

Happy banking. 😃😃🙂😀📱📱