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Dateline: 08/19/97
For several months now I have been banking online, and let me tell you, it is a big time and money saver! We actually use two online banking services. I'll tell you a little about each, how they differ and where they're alike.
Our family banking is done at Canada Trust. We have our chequing and savings accounts there, as well as a mortgage and a Canada Trust Mastercard. My wife's store, Raggs for Kids, has its account with CIBC. We use our personal online banking at Canada Trust quite extensively. We use the online banking with the store primarily to check balances and see which cheques have cleared between statements.
Here's how the Canada Trust online system, called EasyWeb, works. You get onto the Internet using your regular ISP and surf in to Canada Trust's home page. From the menu you select EasyWeb. A security notice appears advising you that you are going into secured access. After clicking OK a new page comes up asking for your access card (debit card) number, a 3 digit access code and a password. When those have been entered and accepted, you are into the online banking.
Menu options at this point are to check your balance, transfer funds between accounts, pay a bill, view scheduled transactions or send an email note to Canada Trust. If you decide to check your balance, it will display the balances in all your accounts, including the principal remaining on your mortgage and the amount owed to your credit card.
Each of these accounts can be further clicked for a detailed breakdown. Clicking on your chequing account, for example will give you a detailed statement of all transactions going back to the beginning of the previous month. This data can be downloaded as a qif file to be integrated into the Quicken or pre-97 Microsoft Money program, or downloaded directly into Microsoft Money 97.
Click on Transfer Money and you can move money between accounts. And click on Pay Bills and you can pay bills online. You have to make prior arrangements by telephone to Canada Trust's EasyLine telephone banking service to set this up. They will accomodate almost any regular bill payment, even to credit cards issued by competing institutions. We are currently set up to pay all of the following online: BC Telephone, AT&T Canada, Rogers Cable, Chevron, Eaton's, Sears Canada, Bank of Montreal Mastercard, Scotia Bank Visa and of course, our Canada Trust Mastercard and Canada Trust Powerline as well. And you can postdate a payment, so as soon as a bill comes in you can pay it by EasyWeb on its due date. If the bill is regualrly recurring and a constant amount, you can direct the online teller to pay the bill every month.
We used to have to mail our payments at a cost of a 49 cents stamp or drive to an office and hand in a payment. Sometimes things would get lost in the shuffle and bills would be paid late, adding interest charges. With the online banking, the bills are paid on time and we save almost 50 cents a transaction. There is no additional charges for using EasyWeb. And we save on gas and wear and tear on the car.
The CIBC online banking is similar but has some differences. The main difference is that you cannot access CIBC PC Banking using your own ISP. You have to request PC Banking and CIBC will send you a software package consisting of four 3 1/2 inch diskettes along with a 36 page manual. After installing the software and rebooting your computer, you click on the CIBC PC Banking icon and it will display a setup menu that asks you to select a local access number and give some information about your modem.
The software package includes an Advantis Dialer, Trumpet Winsock and Netscape 3.0. The programs are all pre-set to access CIBC PC Banking using the IBM Global Network. And no, you cannot go into CIBC PC Banking and surf the net for free. Netscape is configured so that no toolbar or location field is visible. It goes to CIBC PC Banking and only CIBC PC Banking. Which is fair enough as the access is free. There are no charges for CIBC PC Banking.
Upon logging on, you have the option of selecting Convenience Banking, Investors Edge (CIBC's discount brokerage) or CIBC's Travel Medical Insurance.
Once into the Convenience Banking Menu, it is very similar to EasyWeb. You have to give your Convenience Card number and a password. (You choose the password the first time you log on.) You can check your account balances and recent transactions, pay bills or transfer money between accounts, and download records to integrate into your financial software. Additionally you can issue stop payments and manage your Convenience Card, changing the password, adding or deleting accounts, adding bills to pay and so on.
To summarize the differences - EasyWeb can be accessed directly from the Internet using your ISP. CIBC PC Banking must be accessed with proprietary and coded software. EasyWeb requires a password you choose at your branch plus a 3 digit access code. With PC Banking you choose your password when you log on. With EasyWeb you must request additional bill payment capabilities by telephone. With CIBC you can do it right on site. Other than that, they are virtually the same.
Security is, of course, a big issue. You don't want your personal banking information to get into unauthorized hands. Canada Trust uses encryption. It will accept both the 40 bit and 128 bit encryption methods. CIBC, on the other hand, has a direct private line and is not actually on the Internet. In their own words, their access has "been designed to facilitate easy migration to the Internet in the future, once we're satisfied that customer concerns about security have been fully addressed."
Other banks and financial institutions also have online banking and I am sure they are all basically the same in functionality. Online banking is the banking of the future. In fact, the Bank of Montreal has a subsidiary that is exclusively online, and that is mbanx.
In the future, I can see the banks processing mortgages and loans over the Internet. I predict eventually banks will be reduced to Instant Tellers to discharge cash. And if they could figure out a way to spit out cash at your computer, they could do away with those as well. Actually, that day is probably sooner than we think. Pretty soon all bank cards, credit cards and cash will be replaced by one "smart card" and new computers will be fitted with a smart card slot. You'll be able to dial into your bank, stick your card in the slot and ask to have your smart card replenished with cash. Welcome to the future!
Here are some other online banking information links: