In 2022, you can access many banking services right from your smartphone. Read this article to find out how exactly you can benefit from mobile banking!
The popularity of mobile banking has been steadily increasing in the past few years. If you have a smartphone, you can use it to pay bills, send and receive money, check your balance and access many other financial services. Fees are very affordable and transaction rules are highly transparent. In this article, we’ll try to explain the essence and the primary benefits of mobile banking.
How Does Mobile Banking Work?
Before the Internet became commonplace, people had to visit offline branches or ATMs of their banks to get cash, transfer funds to third parties, ask for a loan and use other services. Today, you can save a lot of time and effort thanks to using your bank’s site or app. As soon as you log in with your username and password, you get immediate access to a user-friendly dashboard. From there, you can carry out most operations without third-party help.
Some services are also available through SMS. In this case, you don’t need to log in anywhere. You’re able to use the phone number that is connected to your bank account.
Is Mobile Banking Synonymous with Online Banking?
No. The term “online” means that you need to stay connected to the Internet to carry out financial operations. But you can use selected mobile banking services even when you’re offline — for instance, you can transfer funds to other people via SMS or USSD.
Besides, the term “mobile” means that you’re using your smartphone. The term “online” suggests that you can use either your smartphone or a stationary computer to access the site or app of your banking institution.
Main Types of Mobile Banking Services
Typically, you should get access to the following services:
- Account information. You can check your balance, request a mini account statement, review your transaction history, keep track of your term deposits, view loan or card statements, access investment statements and manage your insurance policies.
- Transactions. Mobile banking enables you to pay the bills at any time of the day and from any location as well as to conduct P2P payments.
- Investments. On your bank’s site or app, you can manage your investment portfolio and get a real-time view of it.
- Loans. Mobile banking allows you to get a loan much quicker and easier than in a physical banking hall. You can request a credit card without queuing or collecting a large set of documents, on very favorable conditions. For instance, Fibo lets you get up to ₦1,000,000 with 0% for the first 30 days.
- Content and news. You can read news related to finance and get to know about the latest offers by your bank.
- Support services. Right through the mobile site or app, you can resolve issues, check the statuses of your requests, lodge a complaint and locate the closest ATMs.
However, it is important to note that the functionality of mobile banking might vary from one institution to another.
Benefits of Mobile Banking
People love mobile banking for the following reasons:
- Ease of access. Banking sites and apps operate 24/7. Sometimes, they might experience downtimes but the banks promptly fix all the issues. You don’t need to waste your time going to a brick-and-mortar bank branch and queuing there. When you come back home from work, you can pay your bills or make investments right from your smartphone.
- Compatibility with an extensive range of devices. You don’t need to buy a powerful and expensive smartphone to get access to mobile banking. The more modern your device and the higher the speed of your Internet connection, the quicker your bank’s site or app will work. But even if you have the most basic smartphone that can’t go online, you can nevertheless send and receive money through SMS.
- User-friendly interfaces. You don’t need to have any financial expertise to be able to use mobile banking services. Banks hire talented UI/UX designers and skilled copywriters. The sites and apps they create are targeted at the widest possible audience. You can learn how to use them in just one evening without third-party help.
- Opportunity to send funds to nearly any part of the world. You might need to pay a higher fee for sending money to another country. But you’ll be able to do it in a couple of clicks and highly securely.
- Security. Banks employ advanced technologies to make their mobile services safe and stable. Their sites and apps can withstand nearly any hacking attack.
And of course, you should appreciate the full control of your finances that mobile banking gives you.
Disadvantages of Mobile Banking
Apart from the multiple advantages, mobile banking has a few shortcomings too:
- As was said above, some services might be unavailable on older devices. Plus, their speed depends on the quality of your Internet connection.
- Mobile banking might involve fees. You should get to know about them before signing up for the bank’s app or site.
- If you lose your smartphone or it gets stolen, third parties can access your savings and private data. To prevent this, you should enable as many security and authentication tools as possible (such as protecting your smartphone access with a fingerprint or password and using another protection level for the app). In case of an emergency, you should immediately get in touch with the support of your bank and ask them to block your account and cards.
- Sometimes, you might receive calls or messages from fraudsters who’ll be trying to steal your money. You should stay vigilant and never share your confidential information with anyone.
As you see, the drawbacks of mobile banking are not too numerous and the advantages of this type of service far outweigh them.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you found this article informative and now you have a better understanding of mobile banking. To use this type of service, you need to have only a bank account and a smartphone. You’ll be able to send and receive money, pay your bills, ask for loans and use other functions of your bank’s site or app 24/7.