Online Banking – How Useful Is It?

Data published by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas shows that as on June 2016 there were a total of 121 banks (including 35 universal / commercial banks, 34 thrift banks and 52 rural and cooperative banks) that offered electronic banking facilities like Internet and mobile banking.

What is online banking?

To put it simply, online banking refers to the conduct of banking through electronic banking channels – this is an umbrella term for Internet banking, mobile banking, phone banking, banking through mobile apps etc.

How useful is online banking?

Let us look at what is possible through online or electronic banking through a couple of real-life examples:

 ▪ The Philippine National Bank offers a bouquet of eBanking Services including Internet banking, phone banking, SMS banking and ATM banking.  

PNB's Internet Banking allows you to:

▫ Monitor your account balances and transactions 

▫ Transfer funds 

▫ Pay bills 

▫ Open accounts 

▫ Schedule payments and fund transfers and program recurring transactions 

▫ Order checkbooks 

▫ View, download and print transaction history online 

▫ Get notifications via emails or text messages regarding your transactions. 

▪ Citibank offers a plethora of online banking services including Internet banking, banking via mobile app and banking via mobile browser. Highlights include: 

▫ Tracking and managing your accounts 

▫ Making bill payments online – either by having bills charged to your credit card or debited against your bank account. 

▫ Transferring funds – either locally between your Citibank accounts or to other bank accounts or globally to your Citibank accounts across the world or to another bank. 

▫ Requesting call backs from the bank through the Call Me Back Service. 

▫ Managing all your Citibank accounts worldwide through a single platform when you log on to your Citibank Philippines account. 

▫ Ordering Peso / Dollar checkbooks. 

▫ Viewing interest rates and foreign exchange rates. 

▫ Changing ATM Pins. 

▫ Open Time Deposits. 

▫ Opening a Checking or a Savings Account. 

▫ Nicknaming your accounts for easier identification while operating. 

▫ Converting single-receipt credit card purchases of Php 5,000 or more into installment payments via Citi Paylite. 

▫ Redeeming Citibank Rewards points for gifts or mileage. 

▫ Monitoring credit card usage through category-wise graphs. 

▫ Applying for a credit card or for supplementary credit cards. 

▫ Changing credit card cash advance PIN. 

The above will give you a fair idea of what you can expect to do through online banking. But, keep in mind the specific array of services that are available through online banking will differ from bank to bank.