Information Center – News and Articles about Credit Cards
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Credit card application and management - all online?
Today it's a usual thing to go to bank's official websites instead of branches to open an account, check up the balance or make a credit card application for best credit card online. On a bank's web site a potential credit consumer can find best reward credit cards, lowest APR or no fee credit cards.
Online banking, a fast-developing service for performing transactions and payments over the Internet, is a secure, fast and convenient way to do your banking anytime and anywhere. Such banks as American Express and Citibank are already providing their customers with the service.
Latest survey showed that the percentage of people using online banking for credit card applications and other transactions increased more than twice since 2001 and goes on growing. At the same time, banking industry is expected to spend $248,1 bln this year on IT including hardware and software, IT services and telecommunications. That means each bank will have its online banking service every customer should be able to use.
Are you aware of your bank's online service and the way to use it?
Usually online banking includes the following services:
• Electronic bill payment
• Investment
• Account balance and history
• Credit card and loan applications and transactions
• Account aggregation which enables you to watch all your accounts in one place
• Bank statements, sometimes integrated with personal finance programs, such as Quicken etc.
• Funds transfer between the customer's savings and checking accounts
With online banking service providing different security facilities you can safely insert you personal data when applying for credit card, making electronic bill payment or investment. As protection through single password authentication has proved to be unsafe, many online banking services apply a second layer of security - single use transaction numbers (TANs), entering of random parts of two passwords, digital certificates.
Banks can also provide customers with security token devices which generate single use passwords. Besides, at the secure sites the interfaces and traffic of all information are encrypted. Despite all this, there is a growing number of cases of fraud which in most cases are caused by the user's carelessness or computer illiteracy.
But why still more and more people choose online banking? Well as a matter of fact, conventional banking presents a much wider field for abuse by frauds and such offline crimes as credit card fraud or identity theft are more difficult for credit consumers to avoid and for investigators to trace than otherwise in would be done in online banking.
In case of online banking, though, the responsibility of your personal data safety is almost wholly in your own hands. To ensure more security of your personal data, you just need to be careful and precautious and should know that the most frequent cases of bank fraud are through phishing.
Now you know that one of the main advantages of online banking is its higher security and better protection from fraud. But, naturally it's not the only reason for more and more credit consumers to turn to this method of applying for credit card or making other financial and credit transactions.
Among other pluses are:
• Accessibility: the site of the bank is available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any location, just log on to the online bank and do your business;
• Transaction speed: operations are conducted and confirmed faster than those of ATM processing;
• Multifunctionality: online banking allows you not only to make credit transaction operations but also make use of account aggregation facility, rate alerts and special programs to help you manage your credit more effectively.
We would be glad to finish by endowing online banking with a positive and promissory air but there is something about it for a potential customer to know.
The subscription for the online banking service can take quite a time, involving much paper and scribbling.
Sometimes you go to the site and find that you fail to make an operation. And it does happen as banks are entitled to change the information to upgrade the online programs.
Always check up for new additions and keep the transaction receipt to ensure all goes right. Keep all these things firmly in mind and try to work them to your advantage and online banking will become the friendliest service provider for your credit.
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