What You Need to Know When You Start Mobile Banking

Mobile banking is a term that has become increasingly popular over the last decade. So, it is common for banks to offer their financial and accounting services to their customers over smartphones. In its simplest form, mobile banking refers to a service provided by a bank to its customers that lets them perform and monitor financial transactions through a smartphone or tablet.

Mobile banking is a part of internet banking, and contrary to popular belief, they are considered the two sides of the same coin. Like internet banking, a mobile bank is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and can perform essential functions like utility bills payments, funds transfer, balance checking, setting up spending limits, and others on a mobile device through the internet.

Your mobile phone will alert and notify you when you make a financial transaction. This will allow you to verify that you made the transaction.

The three ways to access mobile banking are:

Through a mobile banking application
SMS Banking or
Through USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)

Mobile apps

Besides credit card payment, mobile applications are among the most popular payment methods nowadays. The bank provides you with a mobile app dedicated to your needs with all the necessary features and services already in place. Using a bank’s mobile application, you can:

Check your balance
Make payments and transfer funds from or between two different linked accounts- UPI payment is one of the popular forms of payment nowadays
Block your debit or credit card immediately in case of a theft
Get mini statements, loan statements, and card statements
Set alerts on account activity
And request checkbooks and debit or credit cards

If applicable, you can also check your investment portfolio, monitor your fixed deposits mutual funds, and access other investment services. So, mobile apps are highly versatile when it comes to mobile banking.

SMS banking

With SMS banking, the banking services are far more restricted. Here you register your mobile number with the bank for SMS banking. Then, post this; you inquire about your account information by sending an SMS to the bank’s designated number, and, in turn, you will receive a reply from the bank answering your query.

Customers who don’t own a smartphone or have access to the internet can use SMS banking.

You can use SMS banking to check your account balance, obtain mini-statement, and perform similar activities. You cannot transfer funds or carry out any financial transactions here; it simply serves as a means for you to check your account details.

USSD

USSD banking is quite similar to SMS banking. Once again, customers can use it without a smartphone or an internet connection. However, instead of sending an SMS to the bank, you use USSD codes to access the services. Once you enter the code and hit the dial button, you will receive a menu to check your account information, mini-statement, etc.

In conclusion, banking is at your fingertips; you can access your account details and process basic transactions on your device whenever and wherever you are. So, no matter where you are in the world, you can monitor your finances with ease as long as you have a device and an internet connection.