First of all, there is nothing scary about all this articles. Don’t get scared about online banking systems. There are very rare fraud cases but the bank gives you guarantee that if anything happens then the bank will pay you after finishing all the investigations. But, it’s very important that you have to take some basic precautions to make your online bank account safer to use. I know everybody concerns about online banking security and according to the annual survey, the growth of online banking system is affected. The survey said that in one year till the end of August 2005, the American personal banking online activities remain unchanged at the rate of 39%.

Suspicions about Online Banks

I have conversed with a lot of friends and they all regret to join online banks. Only a few of them are using online banking systems but they still have fear in their minds due to hackers. Almost all of them afraid of joining online banks like ING Direct, etc.

There is one thread on ClarkHoward which we can consider as a good example of admitting fear of online banks. This person who created this thread is very interested in having high interest saving rates but is not much comfortable with online banks. I personally suggested him to go in the bank and talk with bank manager but I don’t think so that he did that because I have not got any response from his side but still I am waiting to know what he finally did.

It’s really hard to explain that whether to use online banking or not because we don’t know that these online banks physically exists or not. All legal banks like ING Direct and EmigrantDirect has their offices somewhere in the US. These online banks may not have local branches but they must have affiliation with large banking companies.

Reviewing an Internet Bank

Steps that ensure that online banks are FDIC insured:

1.) Open FDIC.gov website and go to Bank Find page. On this page type the name of the bank for example for EmigrantDirect, type Emigrant Savings and a page with some results will appear. Emigrant Savings is also changing its name to New York Private Bank and Trust soon. You can also read about the history and present state of EmigrantDirect Bank on FDIC page. But on this page website of online unit is not available and after reaching emigrant.com, you’ll see a link to Emigrant-Direct.com. All of these things provide a proof that EmigrantDirect Bank is legally exists and is FDIC ensured.

2.) Finally the important thing is that whether the bank is financially stable or not. Go to Bankrate.com’s website and find a form that bank is using. For example, I selected EmigratDirect bank which is located in New York then further I selected Emigrant Saving Bank from the sidebar menu where you can see a lot of New York banks. Rating for Emigrant Savings is 4 out of 5 stars, its having second highest rating in the New York. So, all above wordings shows that the bank is high financially sound.

There is one benefit that I noticed is, if you have very little amount of money with you and you want to open an account in EmigrantDirect or ING Direct Bank, there is no problem. The whole process and basic requirements for opening an account are very simple. The only thing the consumer should worry about is the money market rates of banks you are doing business with. The money transferring process is also very easy to use. When you’ll enter the bank there are a lot of bank staff member which will guide you how to operate your bank account in few easy steps. If you still have some questions then you are also ask them without any hesitation and they will guide you throughout.