Online banking and your local neighborhood credit union work hand in hand.
In today’s world of fast paced and immediate transactions, your credit union is a price leader in online banking products and most importantly… Free Checking!
Watch out folks, free checking is fast becoming a thing of the past….but not with your local credit union. This is something you do not appreciate it until it is gone.
Or…..one more thing….Wanna talk to your favorite teller? Cindy? or Beth? Well, with some banks, that will cost you! Yes, live interactions with a bank teller will cost you so much per month! Not with credit unions.
Chalk one more up for our credit unions..
This article will explain some portion of both banking platforms, and how credit unions have integrated online banking for your convenience and savings:
• Credit Unions
• Banking Online
Do know that both categories have risks associated with them. Hence, it isn’t advisable to open your account anywhere, until and unless you have contacted a very good financial advisor who knows what he/she is doing.
A Word of Advice:
Individuals, who’re representing credit unions and online banks, are people just like you. They don’t like their job, they’re mostly agitated and angry because of their personal issues and if you try to argue with them, they’re going to make things complicated for you.
In order to deal with your banking dilemmas, which you’ll very much run into, always opt for a sound approach towards a representative. For instance, if you’ve called your “friendly” credit union banking customer helpline, the guy on the other end expects you to know your:
- Account Number
- Exact Problem Details
- The Number of Times You’ve Tried To Log In or Out of Your Online Bank Account (if you had one)
- Date and Time of the Tickets
- Serial Number or Reference Number of Your Complaint Ticket
- Last Guy/Girl You Talked To, In Reference With The Ticket
Likewise there’re other details and guidelines that can definitely help you to speed up your dealings with online banking platforms, and credit unions.
Now that being said, let’s see what this article is all about…
When we talk about credit unions and banking online, there’re certain scenarios that need to be taken care of. First of all, it is not mandatory for a credit union to offer online banking facility. Depending on your State side credit union branch, maybe they encourage you to physically step into their building and carry on with the usual business.
Some credit unions encourage and have already established proper banking online protocols. Such credit unions have e-commerce applications that are very much available as soon as you give them your cellphone number or email address. Later on, the banking thing becomes easier for you as all you have to do is log on to your computer to access your account, pay the bills and manage your financial information.
The other aspect of online banking is the proper banks that offer such services. These banks could be commercial banks or privatized banks. So technically now we have come to know that there’re three main categories of banking online:
1. Banking Online Through Credit Unions
2. Banking Online Through Commercial Banks
3. Banking Online Through Private Banks
When we look at category “A”, the role of ‘Credit Union National Association’, or CUNA, comes into perspective. Take CUNA as a major institute that has issued a set of guidelines to all credit unions in the country, so that they can operate as per those rules and regulations.
More so, if you have heard about FDIC insurance, it becomes kind of easier for you to digest the concept of CUNA, because both organizations serve a long line of purposes that are more or less the same. In one of our previous articles, we compared credit unions with commercial banks. In doing so, we reached the conclusion that credit unions are a lot better because of their low interest rate, not for profit antics and stuff like that.
Now when we compare the same level of credit unions with banking online, a very weird fact becomes obvious. According to various online resources, we found out the most of the credit unions don’t like the idea of incorporating online banking options in their business model. Actually, some unions do have banking online protocol availability, but it isn’t of any major significance. It means that at most, you could just pay your bills and do all the small task, without having major access to your account.
Obviously at this point, you’re willing to know the reason as to why banking online isn’t deemed as a viable option for credit unions. The reason is that if your computer becomes prone to a spyware program, some kind of hacking activity or an effective keylogger that bypasses your so called antivirus and firewall, you can kiss your hard earned cash a sensuous goodbye.
Hacking you online bank account means that someone will get your login information and transfer your funds to an overseas remote account. Chances are that you will get some portion of your money back but not all of it. You’ll have to file a legal investigation report at Federal level. Once they’ve caught the culprit, the legal procedure itself will cost you a couple of tens or thousands of dollars, while leaving you with little or no amount of cash in the end.
If you’re willing to prioritize banking online over credit unions, it is probably because of the fact that your nomad credit union doesn’t support ATM withdrawals, online bill payment and vice versa. As far as the ATM part is concerned, most of the credit unions don’t provide this facility. This factor makes the idea of dealing with bigger banks that already have online banking options available.
Regardless of the choice factors here, the security of banking online is of utmost importance. Yes, “everyone” is doing it but the switch between on paper, to virtual banking statements needs to be tightly administered by experts. There’s no way you can tell what kind of security your bank website is using behind those Log In/ Sign In panels, unless and until you’re a programmer or some kind of expert. As an average person, you just need to be assured that your money is in safe hands.