Do you do online financial transactions? Why or why not?

As a precaution, I dedicate one account to online purchases and transfer money into the account as needed. If the account information is intercepted or lost by the company, or the business is fraudulent, there is only a small amount that can be stolen at any given time and the transaction voided by the bank. The remainder of the funds remain untouched, minimizing the risk associated with online purchases.

John

but I would never do any such transactions on a mobile phone. It is not possible to log or print an audit trail.

I use the internet to pay bills and do most purchases with Visa Debit card. Once, an unauthorized charge was made on a recurring type billing. I went to the bank and they gave me a form and I entered who it was and signed a statement that it was unauthorized. They immediately reversed the charge. It was very easy. Card charges are just like checks--you can "bounce" them easily. My bank would never hesitate to do this for customers, the matter is left between the seller and buyer to figure out.

I think that it would be a useful thing to have , but not necessarily do it all the time. One of my accounts does have a feature where you can send money via text, and really its just easier to go online type in your password and click. In an emergency it would be good i suppose.

Also online banking is not completely secure, just recently a small bank in a small city near me redirected all the users from the online banking login, and prompted them to enter all their information again. A surprising number of people did it. It is all in how savvy you are, I would never re-enter my information especially sensitive information like your ss#, pins, etc. I suppose some people just think because the bank's logo is on it, its real. But i have a feeling people who frequent these threads are smarter than that.

I am completely into internet banking with my local credit union. I also purchase extensively on the internet. I have never had a problem. I do internet bill pay, and where available received my bills via e-mail either at the credit union or my own e-mail address. Right now, I only write one check a month since I can put my homeowners dues in a mailbox a block from my home. Might go to bill pay on this soon to eliminate that check. A few years ago, I was writing 15 or more checks every month as I had done for years. After getting exposed to internet banking and getting all the payees set up, it is really easy enter all the information each month for the accounts that have different amounts due. For regular monthly payments, they have been set up to pay on a given day each month and I don't have to do anything. I can easily check on the status of the account each day of the month in case something should go awry.

Try it, you will like it!!!!!!

I answered yes I do most of the time, which eventually seemed way down the list, and that was not what I meant. So I'm not totally happy with the phrasing of the question ;&gt Beyond that, by most of the time, I meant anytime I can. About the only thing I don't do online is pay my rent, because I can't. I would if I could. It was only this past year in Canada that I could add payees to my chequing account; before that I paid those that the staff authorized for my account. Now I still can't delete an expired account from it directly. I also use electronic authorized debits, and that's the only place I've ever had a problem. Bell Canada debited my account a thousand dollars more than they should have, 2 months in a row. But something that large stands out. And I think scanning the statement online is easier, faster, and probably more reliable. So a problem is more easily noticed & corrected.

Before I pay for or order things online, I have to know something of the company I am dealing with. If they are reputable, then I will transact business with them. I am also very leery of all the phishing messages I get supposedly from banks with whom I have never had any dealings or other financial institutions requesting that I make sure they have the right information.

As a for instance, I am retired from a major NYC bank. I have a pension from them and 2 bank accounts with them. I receive emails from their biggest competitor telling me that they want me to verify the details on my credit card with them. I do not have a credit card or any other dealings with them. The result is that if I ever needed to change my banks, that bank is not one I would use. The same goes for PayPal and EBay. I have been receiving the same messages concerning them. As a result I never use either of them for anything. Even when the item I want is available there I disregard it and go elsewhere.

As for using a cell phone to transact business forget it. There are too many people who sit there talking on their cell phones and I would prefer that those people do not know what I am doing. Last thing in the world I would ever do is use a cell phone to transact business giving any private details.

First is my security software. My software firewall has IPS, to block known malicious protocols. I have basic antivirus and antispyware with automatic updating, scheduled scanning, and real-time monitoring, as well as POP3 scanning (I use an e-mail client). I also use Arovax Shield to block changes to my browser and system settings, and keep my system32 folder locked to read-only.

When I access a site to perform a financial transaction, it must first pass two tests: McAfee SiteAdvisor for legitimacy, and LinkScanner for safety. Finally, I conduct the transaction with a GUI keyboard. And just in case my day turns out to be a regular episode of Seinfeld, and the unimaginable decides to happen, I keep records of all transactions in Quicken and on hard copy.

I do most of my banking and bill paying on line...so far without problem.
Makes life so much easier.
I would not however do anything like this via cell phone...I really dislike cell phones anyway because they intrude in everyone elses life.

I pay all my utility bills, and regular payments like insurance, online. Very convenient, and helpful when you are travelling or on vacation. I also make quite a few purchases online. One problem in India, where I live, is that it is not easy to judge the quality of the product. User reveiews are not available at many sites. Though I have registered for stock transactions online, I have so far refrained from doing it. Maybe I should take the plunge.

I do bill payments thru my online bank account, but I don't feel there is any risk involved in it, unless & until I am using my home PC to make the payments. I always type the name of my bank in the address bar of the browser myself & never click on any links. Recently, I got a freeware utility called Roboform, which has made my life far more simple as I can login into the site just by a single click. By this, I'll be able to keep myself safe from the stupid phishers.

Well there are two reasons why most shopping online doesn't work
1. most companies insist on you having a "c card" (credit) not everybody is able to get one of these things.
2. there is a big problem with currency exchange. Now that we have this wonderful system of trading across the Globe I am lost as to why we don't have a universal money standard for trading online. This could make it faster easier and cheaper for people to do business. Think about it currently it is like $50.USD means add an extra $20 if you come from Australia and then a diferent amount form anywhere else.
I would have to say an internet trading $ would be the best way to go and then people can trade that $ for the coin of thier own country. an internet $ could also make it easy for countries to have tax pre-paid via an online tax system that companies could sign up to thus reducing the risk of bankrupcy at tax time.
But at the end of the day it would be just so much easier if when you wanted to buy something online the price you see is the price you pay no more because of currency exchange rates. that is why I say and internet standard $ system should be put in place.
Q: how many times have you bought something online at the advertised price only to find out your Bank has charge you for being overdrawn because the product you buoght online ended up being dearer then the price advertised?

No absolutely not! With banks going oops we had our 5th and some times 6th security breach. Military losing laptops with families names, dob, ss#. Everything you do online has a trail good or bad. I have had a company "accidentally" charge a credit card. I asked why were you keeping my information to begin with. Everyone wants to anticipate your shopping habits, put your sensitive medical records on line. I work in health care there is no way I want my financials on the web. It's bad enough that it's stored in their "secured" data base. I don't want anyone connecting the dots.....

Here in Australia I pay all my bills, transfer money to various accounts, pay my rent. Purchase mail order wine by the carton. Buy clothing from mail order companies in the USA. Pre-purchase theatre seats in advance for when I travel in America.
Always buy tickets for Opera, theatre, concerts, musicals and dining here in Brisbane - Australia.
Once I purchased opera tickets from a theatre in Kansas City and was amazed at the security.
Purchase PC's by mail order online.
Book and purchase accommodation in Europe and Asia.
Pay online for all air and coach travel.
Never had any problems, but I always make sure that companies have secure locked systems!

My dogs would be mad at me if I did ALL my banking online.
Why? Because my bank has doggie treats at the drive-thru. Therefore,
I deposit certain checks directly into my account from the car rather
than electronically deposited.

When I pull up to the window my 2 Aussies hang their heads over the front seat in anticipation of the goodies. Once, the bank ran out of treats and when I opened the vacuum tube there was only a receipt. My dog, Jake stuck his nose into it and sniffed, then looked at me and made an odd sound under his breath--could swear he said, "No way!"

ON LINE FINANCIAL TRANSACTION,
I have never done any type of on line transaction as far as banking, water bill, lights, ect,ect. Out of the six years that I have had my computer I have done one transaction I used one credit card to send five dollars to join a selling market. IN doing that I was scared to death that somebody would get my card number. As far as using a mobile phone to do any banking no and would not want to too scared someone would be able to steal my info. Hey it happens every day,the government is probably checking us right now. Today it is hard to trust anyone sorry Justaman466

The only thing I don't do on line is buy clothing and groceries. All my bills are paid on line, actually, most are directly withdrawn, I get a statement, and notification from the bank, in email, and on the agreed upon date(s) the funds are withdrawn from my account. Since I have direct deposit, unless I get a check as a gift from someone, I only go to the ATM to withdraw funds now and then.

Yes I do financial transactions online, I order lots of merchandise online, it is easy, get it delivered to my door, no sales tax and I can pick from lots of stores for the best deal.
I also do all my banking online, so easy, no charges at all, they will even mail checks to anyone I ask them to , make the check out and pay the postage, best of all they pay me 5. 1 % interest on my checking account

I do all my financial transactions onlije.
For each vendor, bank, seller (Ebay), and miscellaneous, like Amazon. CNET, etc, I have a different card number from eight different banks For my log-in with password, ID and such, they are canged randomly and show up on my stand-alsone computer in a faraday cage. I have that computer off-line (not connected to the net at all) run weekly random numbers in STRONG conbinations of Upper and lower case letters, upper and lower case numbers. dashes. and diacritics. They are truly random and are entered into my sunken safe. (Sercuity 12, 16. 19, and 23)

I use a different name each time, also randomly chosen.
I choose the amount of each account according to what I think I may use, or, if under crerated, get another card from anorher bank with above methods.
It is not hard to get a new card number from the bank and talk to security to set it up.
I pay timely.
I but under Purchases. ar purchase
large purchases with a fraud card by phone, but it showw okay. I correct that in my own way. I erase all 500.00 charges and pay with a different card. which I change when it comes throug.
I erace spys.
I use different addresses.
Than about does it.

I have online accounts in 2 (European) countries and access them via the web and, in one case, by mobile phone as well. Both banks use 2 factor authentication for any access (ie ID+password and then some second factor such as randomly chosen letters from a keyword/phrase or randomly chosen entry from a 10x10 matrix of letter/number pairs unique to me). At least one UK bank is now issuing random password generating "dongles" that are used to authenticate payments before they are made.
With all this in place and very widely available general knowledge of how to detect "phishing" scams I find it hard to understand why people are so fearful! Some of the additional precautions people mention in these postings verge on the paranoid!
We should not forget how easy it is to clone a credit card out of sight in a restaurant, steal and mis-use travellers' cheques or simply pick a pocket or lady's purse! Let's try to propagate a balanced and realistic view of online activity relative to other ways of doing things!

I have been haunted by scammers ever since I can remember of owning a computer. I have found that you can't have too much security. I had loaded myself up with the latest programs of securities as well as used the bank's own security and tracking system. Without it I would not be doing all the financial decisions I am making now. I am disabled and getting around to do my banking priorities is difficult at times so I am left with the options of securing myself on an overload of anti everything to assure my financial safety as well as my Identity. Modern technologies have become a god send. Too bad there are others that corrupts the system for their own mischievous purposes. This makes it more costly for everyone in the long run.

Nando

I pay any bill that will let me, online. I have never run into trouble with any of my charge cards, online shopping, and I even renew & pay for my driver license & car tags online. Most of my banking is done online. At this time I only have one creditor that doesn't have online payment access.

I was uncertain at first, but now I wouldn't change back to paper checks for anything.

yes i do shopping online at tesco as long as it is a secure sight. but i am very perticular about leaving details i dont use online banking as i prefer to go in personly.