Possibly the best way to handle your
personal finances in the
Internet age. A good online bank will offer you
better-than-average interest rates, plus the convenience of being able to access your accounts online
24/7. The really great ones give you an
ATM card and
reimburse you for those annoying
out-of-network fees everybody's levying these days.
I do my online banking through E*Trade Bank, and so far I'm pretty satisfied. The register management tools don't come anywhere close to those provided by Intuit Quicken or Microsoft Money, but they do the job. (Other banks allow you to access them directly through Quicken or Money.) The biggest convenience I've noticed so far is being able to pay my bills electronically -- and not just that, but being able to pay them ahead of time. I can get my phone bill in the mail today, see that it's due three weeks from now, and schedule my online bank to electronically pay the bill three days before it's due, keeping my earned interest at a maximum.