What is internet banking facility?

Gone are the days, when bank customers used to wait for a long spell at the banking hall, for their turn to complete banking transactions.  The internet banking facility introduced in banks has largely reduced the physical entry of the customers to the banks, owing to following advantages.

1. The utmost advantage of internet banking is that the customers of bank have direct access to operate their account from anywhere. You don’t need to walk to reach your bank for banking transactions if you have internet banking facility.
2. No time restrictions for executing transaction in the account. The customer can execute the transactions even after business hours of the bank or on bank holidays.
3. Since customers themselves operating and monitoring the transactions in their account, the chances of mistakes in transactions from third persons are completely eliminated.
4. Internet banking system facilitates customers to view the balance in the account and recent transactions and also customers can collect bank statements, order for issuance of cheque book etc. without physically visiting the bank.
5. Account holders can also operate their accounts for the purpose of financial transactions like Funds Transfer to linked accounts, Interbank funds transfer through NEFT channel, payments to third parties including Bills payments to registered utility billers like Electricity supply company, Telephone companies, payment of loan installments. Account holder can also open a term deposit account through internet banking facility by transferring the amount from their SB account to fixed deposit account, without visiting the branch.
6. Some banks even offer unique internet banking services like investment (purchase/sales), personal financial support viz. account aggregation so as to allow the customers to monitor all of their accounts maintained at various branches of the bank at one place.

Individual savings and current account holders who have account with the bank can register for internet banking facility. An email address is necessary for registering. The customer has to download the application from the website his bank. At the outset, during online registration of internet banking facility, the account holder has to choose his/her login id. The account holder will also be required to choose a password of his choice at the time of registration, which can be changed later on. Once the log in id with password is registered, the account holder will be further asked to fill in the account details and personal details. Once the details are filled in, the account holder will be asked to go for submission of the same and download the form. The account holder needs to take the printed copy of the down loaded form and submit the same duly signed to the branch where the account is held. Bank on confirming the authenticity of the application allows the customer to gain internet access to his account. The approval of internet access would be communicated to customer through e-mail address provided by the customer in his/her application.

In addition to login id and password, PIN (Personal Identification Number) is necessary for access to all account related services. PIN (Personal Identification Number) is a secret password of 4 digit number. The bank on registration of internet banking would also provide auto generated PIN to the customer. The customer will receive this system generated password through email. The account holder shall take utmost care to keep his/her password and PIN confidential.  The execution method of internet banking transactions may be slightly different from bank to bank depending upon the software of the remitting bank. When the account holder gets access to his account, through login id and password the system automatically prompts him/her how to proceed further for availing the various account related services. The detailed guidelines on internet banking system are also available on the respective bank’s website.