Pay your bills online!

It took me a while to embrace Internet banking. At first I feared that giving information of a sensitive nature on the Internet would be too big a risk to take. I thought of identity theft and scammers who would no doubt be able to use my information to empty my account of all my hard earned cash.

Although some of fears might seem to be a bit on the paranoid side, the truth is there is some truth to my fear. There have been cases where unscrupulous persons have gained access to accounts due to the information they got from their Internet usage.

That does not mean however, that transacting any business online is always dangerous. There are safeguards in place to protect customers from putting sensitive information on any website.

Under no circumstances will any bank website for example ask you to give them your pin number for your A.T.M. card. Instead you are  prompted to create an online account which will include a new password for your security.

The security on the website also protects it from being ‘hacked’ and information released to unauthorized persons. The responsibility lies with consumers not to disclose personal information to persons so that they can access their account online.

Benefits of an Online Payment System

There are many benefits of paying your bills online. I discovered that I suddenly had more free time since I had eliminated the need to stand for hours in long lines waiting to pay bills.

The process of checking balances and transferring funds are definitely easier than waiting to talk to a banking representative.  The times when I tried telephone banking were a pain as I had to wait for an available representative while listening to horrible music then I had to confirm it was my account by answering a number of questions!

Paying bills online can not only save time and money (who wants to drive all around paying bills) but can also result in additional benefits!

For example, customers of the Jamaica Public Company (J.P.S.) who pay their bills online will receive a free three month subscription of The Gleaner and Star ePaper.  The subscription of The Gleaner ePaper for that period normally costs US $27.99.

That certainly gives a great incentive to consumers to pay their bills online!

What about you do you pay your bills online? Let me hear from you!

Teri Ann Renee Paisley

Gleaner online writer

Tags: bills, online