Do you trust online banks?

United States
November 21, 2007 8:58pm CST
Do you trust online banks? Do you consider online banks to be more convenient or less reliable than regular banks? For the most part, I do trust online banks. Most of them are associated with good standing real, brick and morter banks that have been in business for years. But, sometimes you can run into problems when dealing with them. For almost two years, I had an online bank account with NetBank. That is, until two months ago, when they were absorbed by ING. And, then all heck broke loose. First they asked me to sign up with their new mother company, ING, and when I did that's when the real trouble began. They don't offer a traditional checking account, just electric checks. What the heck is that? No paper checks or anything. How am I supposed to pay my bills? The day after I signed up online for their online savings and electric checks, I got a cryptic email from ING, saying that they needed to speak with me by telephone. And, that they needed further information from me that they couldn't obtain by email or Internet. That sounded kind of fishy to me, considering the fact that telephone lines are not that notoriously secure for providing private or sensitive information. Most times banks online use a highly sophisticated SSL connection that provides extreme security online. I've signed up with other banks over the years and none of them have asked me to phone them with additional information. So, I'm thinking it was a sales job. Anyway, for the next few days after I got the mysterious email, I was super busy and unable to call them. Then I got online and checked my email and found that ING had sent me another email stating that they didn't want me to have an account with them. How bogus is that! Just because I didn't return their phone call, or give them the chance to sell me more of their products, they shut my account down. Why couldn't they have just gotten the required info when I was signing up. This whole situation has caused me a world of problems. Now, I'm out fishing for another online bank account. I could get a brick and mortar account with a local bank, but considering that I don't go out that often, it would be a real hassle. I'm thinking about signing up with WAMU or Compass Bank online. They have some pretty interesting sign up offers. So, that's my banking horror story. What's yours?
3 responses
@dreamy1 (3811)
• United States
22 Nov 07
Yes I trust online banks. I have an account with ING and Emigrant Direct and I haven't had any problems.
• United States
22 Nov 07
I've heard that Emigrant Direct pays good interest. I might check them out.
• United States
27 Nov 07
I have never used an online bank, but i've been thinking of looking into it so I'm really interested to see the responses to your article. I can't help but wonder if it was legal for ING to just shut your account like that. It seems fishy and rather shady. The entire world seems to be getting shady these days.
@wseayuan (372)
• China
22 Nov 07
yes ,i trust the online banks.i ofen buy goods by the internet and use the online banks,i don't think the online bank is not safe.but maybe the virus are very popular ,but if you can know how to protect the computer from the virus,the online banks are safe.