Online Banking
Electronic bill payment is a now-common feature of online banking, similar in effect to a giro, allowing a depositor to send money from his demand account to a creditor or vendor such as a public utility or a department store to be credited against a specific account. The payment is optimally executed electronically in real time, though some financial institutions or payment services will wait until the next business day to send out the payment. The bank can usually also generate and mail a paper cheque or banker's draft to a creditor who is not set up to receive electronic payments.
Most large banks also offer various convenience features with their electronic bill payment systems, such as the ability to schedule payments in advance to be made on a specified date, the ability to manage payments from any computer with a web browser over internet, and various options for searching one's recent payment history: when did I last pay Company X? To whom did I make my most recent payment? In many cases one can also integrate the electronic payment data with accounting or personal finance software.
Read more about this topic: Electronic Bill Presentment And Payment
Famous quotes containing the word banking:
“One of the reforms to be carried out during the incoming administration is a change in our monetary and banking laws, so as to secure greater elasticity in the forms of currency available for trade and to prevent the limitations of law from operating to increase the embarrassment of a financial panic.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)