Online banking is an electronic service that banks offer their customers.  Sometimes this is called PC banking.  With online banking, you do most of your banking activity online.  When you open an account, the account manager will ask if you want to use the bank website to see your account.  You will need to set up a login and password so that you can get into their site.  Before this is set up, you need to ask your parents how they feel about this.  Even though banks have very secure sites, some parents do not approve of online banking.  If your parents agree to your having an online account, you can have it set up and begin to login to the site as soon as you leave the bank.
     The best thing to do when you login the first time is pay attention.  If any computer asks you if you want to store your login or password information, choose ‘no’.  This site is the key to getting your money.  If you share your login or password with a friend, you have given them the key to the vault.  We want to believe that our best friends will ALWAYS be our best friends, but sometimes that just doesn’t happen.  Maybe you have a really cool password and your friend shares it with another friend because it is just THAT cool.  Your friend didn’t mean to cause problems but that password was worth sharing.  You need to protect your login information.
     The bank site opens.  Are you still paying attention?  During your first visit, you should look over your account and make sure that what you deposited is the same as the bank total.  Then take some time to look through the links and tabs that show you the services you can use online.  You can transfer money from one account to another.  This means that if you have a savings and a checking account, you can take money from one account and put it in the other electronically.  This is really helpful when you get a job and budget your money.  For example:  You have a savings and a checking account.  Your employer doesn’t give you a paper check each week.  Instead, the company electronically “talks” with your bank and transfers your pay into your accounts so that you have it right away and don’t even have to go to the bank to deposit it. 
     There are advantages to banking online.  You can see your accounts anytime of the day or night, anywhere you can get on the Internet.  You can keep track of your account balances easier. Banks also allow you to pay bills online, although they sometimes charge you a fee to do that.  Deposits and withdrawals of money can be done at most bank A.T.M. machines anytime of the day or night. 
     There are disadvantages to online banking, too.  One of these is security.  Sometimes hackers get into bank sites and take money out of people’s accounts.  Banks pay a lot of money for website programs that keep hackers out.  The Federal Reserve insures up to $250,000 of your money if it is in the bank.  If a hacker takes your money, you will get it back.  Another thing people don’t like about online banking is that they miss having a bank person who can answer questions, make sure that your money gets into the right account, and things like that. 
     Nowadays, a lot of people bank online.  You need to talk this over with your parents, get information from your bank about it, and then make your decision.  You need to have easy AND secure banking.

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Fun Fact

Online banking saves trees because you are paying bills by transferring money from your account to someone else's. No checks, no paper, no trees!