Citibank -- Supremo in Online Banking
Written: Oct 19 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to navigate, customizable, fast online bill payment
Cons: High fees at the bricks-and-mortar branch, low density of ATMs on West Coast
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| venu's Full Review: Citibank |
Citibank has always been ahead of its counterparts when it comes to incorporating technology into its operations. This is truly evident in its excellent online banking service which it unveiled an year ago.
I had been banking with the Bank of America (BoFA) for 3 years and had been intensely irritated by their lack of customer focus and sheer hubris. I decided to switch to Online banking and researched the online offerings of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and a few others.
The criterion of importance to me were: a quick-loading and intuitively designed web-site, good online bill-payment service, integration of my banking and brokerage services, access to ATMs world-wide and good customer service.
Bank of America fared poorly in all of the above criteria. Wells Fargo has a decent online-banking service but poor customer service and lack of global focus. Citibank, on the other hand, got good ratings for each of the above criteria.
I have been using the service for a year and am extremely pleased with the overall experience.
A typical online-banking session:
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The first time you log into the service, the browser saves a cookie on your hard-drive. This enables the server to recognize you the next time you log into the service and auto-magically fill in your user-name.
A specialized browser window pops up when you click on the login key. This browser window stays active throughout your session. You are immediately taken to a customizable front-page which details your account balances and such.
You can check your account balances and transactions for as long back as you want. You can set up a Payee List and instruct the service to send online payments in a periodic manner of your choosing. I pay *all* of my credit cards and other bills in this manner.
Pros:
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# Quick-loading website. The site is very easily navigable and intuitive to use.
# Fast online bill-payment service: This feature enables you to set up a list of payees to whom you want to send online payments in a regular manner.
# Quick access to customer service: Messages from Customer Service can be accessed via the web-site. Messages can also be sent to Customer Service the same way. Since the entire session is secure (see below), the email cannot be intercepted in any way. I can report a bill payment problem, change my PIN, change my address, stop payment of a check or order checks -- all online.
# Highly secure: The service uses 128-bit encryption during the entire session.
# Access to ATMs worldwide. The same ATM card can be used in *any* Citibank ATM in the world. This pretty much does away with the need to buy travellers cheques when one is travelling to any of the metropolitan cities of the world.
# Access to the latest bank balance 24 hours-a-day, anywhere in the world.
# Ability to download Account Activity in either a Quicken or other formats to your PC software.
# Ability to trade stocks and mutual funds online via the same service.
# Highly reliable service: I have *never* had an instance of the server crashing on me. The reliability and "up-time" of the service truly has been amazing.
Cons:
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# Lack of integration of the online banking, credit card and brokerage services.
# High fees for international money transfers and other services at the bricks-and-mortar branch.
# Low density of Citibank ATMs on the West Coast.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
venu
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Member: Venu Javarappa
Location: Silicon Valley, CA.
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 11 members
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