|
My Opinion on Online Banking
Originally posted on February
5th, 2003
Propellerhead technology married to
Caveman Managers...
I am most likely the premier
proponent for online anything. Really. I do everything online.
I love the online / Internet community. It's here to stay and
like it or not it will envelope you sooner or later.
That being said, there's only
one thing keeping most people from embracing online banking and
online purchasing... the unmitigated fear of some asswipe getting
your credit card or SSN number and screwing you over.
I've personally never had a problem
with any online service with the exception of PayPal (I call
em Paysuck) and eBay. But now I can add a new one... online banking.
I use Quicken and Quickbooks to manage my personal life and business
and online banking is very very convenient for getting the most
up to date information about my credit card purchases and banking
transactions. No question about it, it really is nice, almost
like having a personal assistant doing the books for you.
But then it happened... Houston...we
have a problem...
I was paying my car insurance
(via online banking) and I got a notice in the mail from my insurer
that they haven't received my payment. I looked in my Quicken
register and found that they did indeed get it. They said they
didn't...
I called my bank and they started
an investigation...
Weeks went by...
More late notices and nasty statement
about sending me to a collection agency...
Meanwhile more items from other
businesses I deal with were also reporting that I didn't pay
them. I started hounding my bank to fix this. After about 3 months
of constant daily emails, phone calls, and letters It was fixed.
All that convenience and money saving on stamps sales pitch went
right out the window.
It was such a bad experience,
I switched back to writing checks and mailing them in.
So, in my opinion, Online Banking
works about 97% of the time, but when it breaks I found the experience
very very frustrating. The people behind the scenes are apathetic,
the managers at the banks are still in the dark ages and nothing
beats good old fashioned check writing.
Michael
|
