Difference Between Online Banking and e-Banking

Online Banking vs e-Banking

The advent of internet has not been beneficial for just getting loads of information; it has helped enormously in making life easier in all walks of life. One such industry that has benefited enormously is banking. Internet banking has made lives easier for not only banks; it has made possible for customers to access their bank accounts without having to go physically to their banks. Internet banking is also referred to as online banking or e-banking. A person with a PC and internet connection can log onto his bank account and make payments or conduct other financial transactions easily and quickly thus saving a lot of time and money.

For customers, online banking and e-banking have brought a lot of convenience in their wake but for banks, they are much more than that. Banks switching to online banking have experienced reduction in operational costs. Earlier customers had to come physically even to know their account balances and certainly every time to withdraw money from their accounts. Even when they had to make payments to other accounts from their saving or current account, they had to come to the bank to deposit Cheques. All this was done by personnel at the bank which unnecessarily resulted in wastage of time and manpower. But the use of online banking and e-banking has obliterated the need of personally visiting the bank for such purposes.

E-banking is a broader concept than online banking which is when a person has to log on to his bank account for financial transactions. The use of Automated Teller machines (ATM’s) is one example where a person can access his bank account by swapping his debit or ATM card in a machine and entering the PIN allotted to him by the bank. E-banking is sometimes also referred to as Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) where financial transactions are possible even without logging on to internet. The use of swap machine where you make payments to a merchant for products using your ATM, debit or credit card is another instance of e-banking where the information of your purchase reaches your ban electronically and it debits your account by the amount that you have used from your account for making purchases.

Though the use of technology in online banking and e-banking has been made secure for all purposes, there are instances of forgery and hacking where people with malicious intentions crack the password and code of another person’s account and harm him financially. This is why online banking and e-banking must be used with caution by following all the rules and guidelines issued by the bank for one’s own safety.