Ok, so I’m a little bit of a nerd, and I love using technology to simplify my life. I honestly do not know how I would pay any of my bills if it wasn’t for online banking. Are you hesitant to go online to check your account information? Well, it isn’t a bad thing to be cautious, but online banking has become so safe and convenient in recent years, that you are honestly costing yourself time and money by not using your bank’s online tools.
Let’s just look at the easy to figure expenses you can avoid. If you use your bank’s online bill pay feature, you can avoid writing and mailing checks. That saves you a stamp for each of your bills, which over the course of many years, adds up to significant savings. Using your online bill pay feature is smart because you can rest assured that your payment has been credited to your account, and you can confirm the receipt of your payment by logging onto your creditor’s account and viewing the payments received. You don’t have to worry about whether or not your check was lost in the mail, and whether or not your payment is being applied to your account.
Ok, so it is obviously convenient to use Bleaching Gigi online banking to pay your bills. What else? Well, many banks offer online spending analyzer tools that can be incorporated into your regular budget. Not sure where all of your money goes? Well, your bank’s spending tools can show you how much you are spending each month at the grocery store, gas station and movie theatre, so that you can make some conscious decisions about how to spend smarter, so that you save more and spend less. If you don’t like the tools available through your bank’s online account information site, sign up for a free account at Mint.com. You can provide mint.com with your bank username and password, and mint.com will provide you with every tool you can imagine to manage your money. But you have to have an online account with your bank to set up your Mint.com account.
Finally, online banking allows you to keep track of your money at all times. Most banks have mobile apps that you can use on your smart phone to keep track of your balance, upcoming bills and deposits. Some banks even allow you to deposit a check by taking a picture of it with your phone. That’s right, no reason to go to your local bank office anymore, as you can just deposit checks with your smart phone. You can download an Excel spreadsheet of your account transactions so that you have a historical record of your transactions. You no longer have to keep shoe boxes filled up with bank records, you can save it all on your hard drive.
There is no reason to not sign up for your online banking account information with your bank. All banks offer them, and there is typically no charge for this service.