With all the extras that come with personal checking accounts these days, managing your money has never been easier. Paper statements and check registers have been replaced by financial management tools that make it faster and easier to navigate your spending. So, how exactly can you use these personal checking account tools to your advantage? Here are some ways they make it easier to manage your money:
Online banking with bill pay
It’s hands-down the most convenient way to pay your bills online for free. This amazing tool makes it easy to send and track payments, so you can better manage your finances. Here are just a few things you can do:
- Make all your payments online
- Schedule payments by due date. (Just enter the due date of your bill and the bank will make sure it arrives on time.)
- Receive e-bills right in bill pay and schedule automatic payments, if you like
- Schedule next day payments for most electronic billers
Review, save and print online statements
With online statements, you’ll be able to access your personal checking account, or your savings/money market information instantly, which will help you better manage your finances. And you can even set up e-mail notifications when a new statement is posted to online banking.
Bank virtually anywhere
With a secure mobile banking app, you can manage your banking on-the-go by:
- Checking your deposit, loan and credit card account balances whenever you’d like
- Depositing a check by taking a picture of it with your Android or iPhone smart phone.
- Viewing pending transactions and account history in real time
- Transferring funds, depositing checks or making single bill payments
- Finding the nearest bank location or ATM
- Reporting a lost, stolen or damaged debit, credit or gift card
Support your account information using personal finance management (PFM) software
Many banks will give you access to PMFs like Quicken and QuickBooks, which allow you to:
- Directly download balances and transaction history for your personal checking account and savings-type accounts
- Transfer funds between eligible accounts
- Exchange secure messages with customer service
- Analyze and report account activity using a variety of built-in tools
- Synchronize account information and scheduled bill payments between PFMs and online banking
Final Thought
There are a lot of people who still prefer to do their banking the old fashion way. They like to go into their bank branch to do their banking and they also like to order checks. Online banking with your personal checking account is the future of banking because it helps to simplify our lives.
