Online Banking - How useful?

The two online banks I will be investigating are Barclays and Lloyds TSB.

The purpose of online banking is to be able to check your account balance, transfer money to other accounts or people, set up standing orders into accounts or bills that must be paid over a certain period of time and many other useful extras that can all be done at home instead of at the bank you use.

The target audience of online banking are over sixteen’s as they are eligible for a chip and pin card which is used in Barclays new updated online banking as they must use there chip and pin card in a device called PINsentry where they put in their card into the device and must put in their pin and they are given a code to access their online account the codes are always random and the PINsentry has also recently been introduced to increase security but to receive the device and card they must go to one of the branches banks whereas Lloyds TSB allows customers to register online, by telephone or going to one of the many branches but to register online you have to put in all your card details and personal details and if the website was a scam website then this could lead to people having their account details stolen as there does not seem to be to much security.

Both websites fulfils these purposes its just Barclays seems to be more secure as they offer another line of security then Lloyds but since I do not use Lloyds my statement may not be correct as they may include extra devices or other security.

The major advantages of using online banking is that it is easy and quick, does not involve going long distances to get to one of the branches, can be done almost anywhere where a computer has an internet connection, some online banks offer extra protection and it allows people to set up standing orders for bills to business like British gas.
The limitations are that certain people set up scam websites meant to look like the proper official bank website which they use to recover card details and information to make counterfeit cards they do this by sending an E-mail to a certain customer say that something has gone wrong and that they must in put there details again.

Online banking could be improved by making sure that bank websites are official by putting a non-copy and paste image that show that the websites are official and stops the theft of online details and increase security to stop accounts getting hacked into.