A Few Extra Features Would Make Online Banking Easier

After a couple of months of experimenting with Washington Mutual’s PC Banking services, I’ve discovered that I love banking from my personal computer.

I’m just not sure I love Washington Mutual’s online banking services. It’s not that the service isn’t adequate--it is. It has the basics, such as online bill payments, transfers, statement downloads. But there are a couple of niggling annoyances and missing features that prevent it from completely pleasing me. (For instance, the balance and transactions listed are a day behind.)

My experiment began in mid-March. After a fairly easy sign-up and a mandatory waiting period of three business days, I eagerly sat in front of my PC ready to log on. The Washington Mutual system rejected my sign-on and personal identification number. I tried three times, and each time glaring black-and-white error messages stared back at me instead of Washington Mutual’s soothing orange and blue home-page colors.

A call to Washington Mutual’s customer service got me on the system, but the error messages popped up on my subsequent attempts to log on. It took several promptly answered calls to the bank’s technical staff before I could log on. They blamed their tough security system, which rejects all log-in attempts after three failed tries. On the third call--and after wails of frustration--a helpful technician told me the problem might be in the way I was logging out when I was locked out of my account. (I was just clicking out on my Internet Explorer browser, and not using Washington Mutual’s purple button marked “Exit.”) Who knew?

Once online, filling out the templates to list my payees (I have about 10 monthly), addresses, account numbers, etc., took about an hour. It was easy, too, to set up automatic payments for my two recurring monthly bills.

Here’s where I tripped up. I had miscalculated and misunderstood the delivery time. Washington Mutual requires five days for delivery; it says that in plain letters that I breezed over on the bill-payment Web page. I thought “transmit date” meant the day the payment is sent, and even my decision to give it three days’ lead time wasn’t enough. “Transmit date” actually is the date the money is taken out of my account and processing begins, but not the date it reaches the payee. At Washington Mutual, I later learned, processing my payment takes two business days and delivery takes three more.

The result: a $29 late fee on my Visa credit card and a threat to turn off my service from the Gas Co. that I had to straighten out with some telephone time.

I am poorer but wiser now, and I can calculate when the payments will get where they are going. But the system would be easier with a calendar telling me exactly what date the payment will arrive at its destination.

Those complaints aside, PC bill paying is a wonderful invention for a disorganized person who hates the physical process of paying bills, as I do. It has cut in half the amount of time I spend paying bills by check, finding a mailbox, mailing bills and entering bills into my check register. And I don’t spend as much money on stamps.

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Online Options

Here’s a look at the online banking services offered by California’s three largest banks. Prices and options are for monthly service.

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BofA Wash. Mutual. Wells Fargo www.bankamrican.com www.wamu.com www.wellsfargo.com Fee Free Free/$5 bill pay $5* No. of transactions Unlimited Unlimited 25** No. of creditors Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Transfer funds Yes Yes Yes Check ordering Yes Yes Yes Stop payments Yes No Yes Statement copies Yes Yes Yes Change of address Yes No Yes Receive bills Yes No No

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* Free with $5,000 balance

** 40 cents per transaction thereafter

Sources: Company reports