Internet Banking UK Options
One of the world's first direct banks was First Direct. It began operations in the United Kingdom on October 1, 1989. Owned by the Midland Bank it was the first to offer 24 hour service from a call centre in Leeds.
If you live in the UK and are interested in getting involved with Internet banking, then there are quite a few different financial institutions that you have available to you. One in particular is the Co-operative Bank and they are an organization which prides itself on being able to conduct its business in a socially adept manner.
The Co-operative Bank offers a range of different financial products, from current accounts and savings accounts to credit cards and loans. They presently have over 6.5 million customers and continue to grow each and every day. They coincide with what is known as the Co-operative Group Limited, which is a family of businesses that share the same way of doing things.
Their main goal and assertion is to optimize profits from various businesses in order to allow their members to be able to have all the access that they want to their own online banking accounts, while at the same time ensuring a reasonable financial return to their member-owners, both corporate and individual.
Features
This particular Internet banking UK company offers an array of different online banking services, including the basic ones, such as: transferring money between accounts, making withdrawals and deposits, paying bills, applying for loans and credit cards, and so on, however they also include several unique features that not all banking institutions offer.
One of these in particular involves investing. You are able to make online investment purchases, and manage your portfolio entirely over the Internet, as you please. Just a few of the services that you are offered in this area include: the ability to view information about your different investment accounts, perform transfers between your various mutual fund and other accounts, open up new accounts, and set up pre-authorized contributions.
You even have the opportunity of completing brokerage related tasks, and in this regard you are able to get real-time and delayed quotes and even access real-time news items and set market alerts through an automated monitoring system.
You are offered almost limitless options with this Internet banking UK company, and so it is definitely one that you are going to want to check out if you are interested in getting into Internet banking yourself.
There are also various other banking institutions in the UK that offer online Internet banking however, and so you will want to see if your existing financial institution offers these services, and if not then you may want to spend a bit of time doing some research in order to find out what your options are and decide whether it is worth switching or not, which it usually is, due to the great advantages and convenience you will gain with Internet banking.
Internet Banking 30 Years Later
It has been 30 years since the introduction of internet banking in the UK. Since then nearly 7,500 bank and building society locations have been closed due to customers switching to phone and online banking. Technological advances have reduced the need to go to the bank in person. With innovations such as smartphone apps and internet banking this trend is likely to continue.