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As an early morning riser in my household, I have a little ‘routine’ I go through to wake up.

Grab a BIG cup of coffee, shuffle downstairs to my basement/office (affectionately known as the ManCave) and start going through the daily e-mails.

This morning, I got a pleasant surprise from my bank. My state taxes had already deposited to my account. The pleasant part is that I filed (electronically) just two days ago. Talk about turnaround!

That got me thinking about my on-line banking and the history I’ve had with it.

How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways

I’ve never been one of those people that love the person-to-person aspect of banking. When I was growing up, it seemed that all the banking employees either had an attitude or were just unfriendly. Admittedly, that was 20+ years ago, and nowadays when I go into a bank branch, the attitudes seem to have changed, but I’m DEEPLY hooked on electronic banking anyway.

I’ve been a Bank of America customer (not an employee) for the better part of 20 years, all the way back to when it used to be Nations Bank, and changed its name. In that time, I’ve been a sucker for trying all their new on-line stuff. Here’s my thoughts on the results.

Convenient - On-line banking is just darn CONVENIENT. Log on, go to the web site and be able to do pretty much anything with your account (short of actually withdrawing physical money) that you want. If I want to check my balances every 40 seconds or so, at 3:00 a.m.,.. naked, while practicing the guitar, I CAN. Now that’s convenient.

Accurate - The on-line numbers are almost up to the minute, with pending transactions noted to hit the account and highlighted like the batting lineup of a major baseball game. I know what happened on my account, what’s going to happen to my account, and how much money I have available at a glance. Discounting outstanding paper checks, it’s easy to check current balances.

Paper Free - BofA has free electronic checking as well, so I rarely write checks anymore. This has cut down a 25+ checks per month habit (with the obligatory postage) to maybe one check every few months (and if I can figure out how to get my Scout Troop to start accepting ACH transfers, I might forego checks entirely). An immediate savings of $30-40 per year right there.

On-line Statements - I used to get paper statements in the past, and had to deal with hand-reconciling, then SAFELY destroying the statements, or storing them somewhere for future use. With on-line banking, I have immediate access to my statements on-line for 6 months, plus I regularly download and store PDF copies going back 4-5 years.

Automatic Bill Pay (My Favorite) - This is a biggie, and by all rights deserves a separate article on its own, but I’ll summarize here. Get an e-bill, have it automatically paid. No muss, no fuss, no forgetting. It’s cut down the time I spend on finances to a few minutes a month, just verifying that everything is still kosher. In the entire time I’ve had Auto Bill Pay, I’ve NEVER had a bill arrive late or not arrive at all. That’s 7+ years now folks. Pretty good track record as far as I’m concerned.

View Other Accounts - BofA at least, has a section that allows you to set up other accounts and credit cards so that you can see their balances and due dates as well. This is a free feature, and I’ve come to love it. I can get a snapshot of my total financial picture, including credit cards, other bank accounts, investment accounts, airline/customer points, news (if I want it) and other ancillary information from various sources, all on one screen. I have yet to take FULL advantage of what it can do, but for what I’ve done so far, I love it. This is similar to what Mint.com and Yodlee.com have, but built right in.

E-mail Notifications - Another indispensable feature is the ability to be notified by the bank of various actions. This morning for instance, I was notified about the State Tax deposit that hit my account last night. I also get notified of overdrafts, low balance amounts (which should prevent those overdrafts) and notifications of bills scheduled, paid, and unpaid-but-due. Lots of feedback to keep me from screwing up somewhere.

Electronic Transfers - BofA and other banks are offering the ability to set up either one-time or automated/recurring electronic transfers to customers in the bank or outside. This has saved my bacon a couple of times in the past already. I’ve fubared finances in the past, especially when the wife writes a check for something for me and I forget to transfer the money back to her account to cover it. Since we’re both BofA customers, I have been able to transfer money to her account INSTANTLY the night before the check hits, saving me at least $29 dollars in overdraft fees on multiple occasions. You can also transfer funds to other banks, other people (anyone), BofA credit cards (counts as a payment) and to Banc of America Investment accounts directly.

Security - I’m very confident of the security of the web site. BofA is usually the FIRST site to implement new security measures that become Internet standards. They have custom key-phrase question and answer, picture identification, along with the standard username/password challenge. It’s secure enough without tipping over to the intrusive side of security. Along with the other security guarantees about fraud and theft of credit/debit cards, I’ve never had any security issues; either getting into my account, or keeping OTHERS out of my account. It even boots you out  after 15 minutes of inactivity. Secure, but still usable.

Downloading Statements - It’s a little extra cost ($9.95/month) but the ability to download your statements automatically to Quicken has saved me COUNTLESS hours over the years. I’m slightly peeved that it’s still a pay feature, but I’m too lazy to use their web-connect free alternative. With this nice feature (and it’s also is available for MS Money users as well) I can fire up Quicken, slurp down all the months’ transactions, and reconcile all the bills, deposits, and withdrawals for my offline viewing pleasure. I can also run in the opposite direction, posting electronic actions to pay bills, transfer money, and do other things via Quicken also (that’s where the fee part comes in). Automation is Wonderful!

With all the great things that you can do nowadays with banks on-line, it’s a wonder that there are still people balancing their checkbooks by hand and figuring their bills on a piece of paper each month. But, whatever works for you is what works. I’d suggest though if you haven’t come over to the electronic dark side, that you at least give today’s’ banks another look. You just might be pleasantly surprised how easy they can make your finances.

Do you have thoughts about on-line banking? We’d love to hear them. Leave us a comment with your experiences?

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