If you are a regular consumer, you must have noticed that every year it is becoming increasingly difficult to deal with Canadian banks any way other than on-line. They keep coming up with ever increasing fees for things that used to be free and taken for granted. Reaching most banks over the phone has become virtually impossible. If you call, you will be greeted by automated system with voice recognition. After a few minutes of desperate attempts to get the system to understand what you are saying, you will lose your patience and start cursing the thing.

Apparently, their voice recognition software is set up to recognize swear words, and at this stage you will probably be transferred to a live agent. Now you have to wait. I had to wait almost two hours on one occasion. If you are patient, you may get to speak with a real person eventually. But chances are you will be disappointed again. The $10/hour agent may hardly speak English and lack the knowledge and skills required to solve your problem. The impression I have is that the banks are simply pushing us to deal with then online by making all the other means increasingly difficult.

Those of us over 40 probably remember a very similar strategy used by the banks to teach us to use the ATMs. But after a while we learned to use the ATMs and recognized their advantages. Even the most conservative of us can’t deny that it is simply more convenient. But what if we try to look at online banking from the same angle? It may be right that the banks are pushing us to change our banking habits against our wills in order to cut their expenses. But there may be substantial benefits in doing it this way for us as consumers as well.

My personal favorite is the fact that I can bank while wearing nothing but my slippers. Why go somewhere or even bother to dial an eleven digit number when you can do most of your transactions by simply making a few clicks. Most of us are visual learners, which means that it is easier for us to receive information by seeing than by hearing. And with online banking you see everything right on your screen. Most banking web sites are really user-friendly and efficient. One major concern about online banking is security. But if we look at it realistically, online banking is the most secure way to do business. It would take an expert to hack into your bank’s system, while any bozo can easily steal your mail where all your private information can be found, or simply look over your shoulder while you are at a bank branch. If you haven’t done so already, give online banking a chance. You won’t be disappointed.

Nikolay Sisan is a Certified Financial Planner and freelance writer in Vancouver.