Online banking improves personal accounts monitoring

Frequent bank reconciliation, as opposed to monthly verifications associated with statements, allows consumers to identify fraud earlier.

According to a recent Forrester Research study, 31% of French adults use online banking services. This figure has been increasing steadily over the past decade and should continue to rise over the next five year, according to the market analysis firm. The main reasons are twofold: users increasingly trust the Internet, and banks can still do more to persuade them to adopt online banking, in particular by lowering or eliminating the fees that still often apply to online services. Forrester Research anticipates 42% of French adults will use online banking services by 2013.

:: Beware of any unrecognized activity

Online banking services allow to conduct banking operations by simply using a computer connected to the Internet. They also allow to monitor banking activity in quasi real time, which can prove extremely useful to block fraudulent operations made with your payment means, should it happen. The earlier fraud is identified, the faster you will be able to notify your bank and cancel your cards. Reacting fast is all the more important that a stolen card number is often tested by charging a very small amount – a few euros – which often goes unnoticed, before much higher amounts are charged to the card. Constant and close monitoring of your banking activity will allow you to identify theft at the very onset of fraud, and possibly react before any significant damage happens.

:: Personal finance software makes things easier

For reasons stated above, it is best not to wait for monthly statements to verify the nature and amount of each charge applied to your credit or debit cards. More frequent periodical checks are highly beneficial. Depending on the amount of activity and level of detail included in the descriptions, it may be difficult to recall each item and check each charge’s accuracy from memory. Personal finance software can be helpful for bank reconciliation tasks, if all activity is entered rigorously. A wide variety of such software is available to choose from, commercial products as well as freeware (such as Microsoft Money or Ciel Comptes Personnels in the first category, and BankPerfect, Banque Manager, Economix, Grisbi, VisualCarnet or Xbudget in the second category, amongst others). Some of these programs require manual reconciliation, where the user ticks items one by one, while others automate the process once banking activity registered with your bank has been downloaded on your computer.

Annabelle BOUARD for BNP Paribas