Online Banking 411

Every major bank in the country, and most smaller ones as well, have at least some form of online banking.  There are certain things we’ve come to expect, as customers, from our banking online.  We here at Online Banking 411 thought we’d point out the obvious and tell you what you should be expecting from a good online baking service.

First, every bank offering online access should, at the very least, have a tough bank online banking of security measures to keep your information and accounts safe.  This is an industry standard and if your bank only requires the bare minimum to log into your accounts–even just to view balances–then you need to pack up and go elsewhere.

The minimum requirements for online banking are simple: access to account balances, histories, and transfers.  Everything you can do at an ATM, you should be able to do online (except get cash, of course–wouldn’t that be nice?).

Most people banking online prefer to have the ability to look at canceled checks, do at least the minimum with mobile banking (checking accounts) and many like getting alerts when events happen such as automatic deposits, withdrawals, or checks clearing.

A bank online banking usually offers all of their basic banking information, such as rates, fees, branch locations, background on some account types, and so forth.  This helps the customer and saves phone calls and emails to get answers.  Your online banking service should offer plenty of information about the institution, the accounts they offer, and so forth.

Overall, banking online has become a mainstay and is considered standard now for banking services.  If you’re not banking online, you’re probably feeling awful outdated.  It saves time, frustration, and makes life on the go much easier.

It’s time for us at Online Banking 411 to show you what’s the latest at Wachovia Online with a Wachovia Online review.  If you’re a customer at Wachovia, or considering becoming one, this look at Wachovia online banking is for you.

The newest addition at Wachovia Online is mobile banking so you can do much of your banking from your mobile phone or smart phone.  The online system for mobile banking allows you to check balances, get alerts when checks or deposits go through, transfer from one account to another, and more.  For those on the go, Wachovia online banking ‘s mobile banking is great.

Your Wachovia Online account now tracks sixteen months of full bank statements, including canceled checks and other information, so you can view or print it at any time.  In addition, Wachovia online banking synchs with Quicken, QuickBooks, and MS Money so you can easily download your latest information and do your budget and finances on your computer with your favorite software.  Makes tax-time a breeze too.

In fact, the largest complaint heard with Wachovia online review sites is that Wachovia’s site is a litte cluttered.  It doesn’t seem that bad, but some prefer simplicity.

Now that Wachovia Online is merged with Wells Fargo Bank, some services are inter-twined.  Home mortgages are one of those.  For the most part, however, Wachovia online banking is still completely separate from Wells Fargo and may be for some time.

If you’re a Wachovia customer, you’ll probably find Wachovia Online to be a great time saver.  Try it.

In our last post, we looked at Wachovia Online and the features it offers for customers of Wachovia. Today, we here at Online Banking 411 are going over the Wachovia Online banking Billpay service and how that works.

Wachovia Online allows you to look at your account balances, statements, and so forth.  Wachovia Online Billpay, though, lets you pay bills at both Wachovia and with common services like your credit cards, utilities, and so forth.

You can also use Wachovia Billpay to set up automatic payments on bills to auto-withdraw (if you have enough balance) so you don’t have to worry about them anymore.  This automation makes life easier for many people, so Wachovia Online Billpay has some definite ease of convenience.

You can also sign up to have Wachovia Online banking Billpay email or text message you when a bill is paid and with current account balances so you’re never behind.

These services are definitely worth looking at if you’re a Wachovia or Wells Fargo (who owns Wachovia) customer.  Wachovia Online has a lot to offer for convenience, especially Wachovia Billpay.

Today at Online Banking 411, we’re going to take a close look at how Wachovia Online banking services work and what they can do for you.  If you’re a customer or prospective customer of this bank (or Wells Fargo, which owns Wachovia), this information is for you.

Wachovia Online offers several banking services, brokerage services, and access to your Wachovia retirement accounts.  So Wachovia Online is more than just Wachovia Online banking.

Wachovia online banking includes access to your accounts, including activity and balances.  You can manage those accounts, transfer funds, see online statements, view images of paid checks in all accounts with checks, etc.  You can also use Wachovia Online to pay bills and have your account balances delivered to you automatically by email or text.

Wachovia Online banking services can also be accessed via phone or even online through your smart phone (like an iPhone).

The Wachovia Online access to you brokerage accounts allows you to check balances, holdings, and recent activity as well as place and confirm trades.  You can get real-time quotes, news, commentary, and more and do it all from one dashboard with One Stop.

If you have Wachovia retirement accounts (401k, IRA, etc.), you can access those through Wachovia Online banking as well.  You can make allocations and investment changes to your manageable accounts and check the status, current rates of return, etc. as well.

Overall, there are great things to be found at Wachovia Online banking services.  Definitely worth trying if you’re a Wachovia customer.  In our next post, we’ll look at Wachovia Online banking billpay and how that works.

The Federal Reserve on Sunday approved the Wells Fargo Wachovia acquisition.  This acquisition took a while to complete due to Citibank’s fight to also buy Wachovia Corp, the holding company for Wachovia Bank.  But on Sunday the Feds finally solidified the deal between Wachovia & Wells Fargo.

Online Banking 411 typically discusses Wachovia online banking but with the recent acquisition, we will be covering more news about Wells Fargo.  Wells Fargo is a San Francisco based bank.  And, It is one of the largest banks in the United States.  We are hoping the Wells Fargo acquiring Wachovia will be good news for Wachovia account holders.

Wachovia online banking is one of the most robust online banking websites of any United States bank.  If you are looking for an online bank, you will be surprised by all of the services offered by the Wachovia on line banking website.  This article will review the banking products offered at wachovia.com.

Wachovia On Line Banking:

Wachovia breaks out its banking products into Wachovia checking accounts, savings accounts, Wachovia CDs, Wachovia credit cards, gift cards, and online services.  This article will provide an overview of these Wachovia banking products.  Let’s start with the Wachovia checking accounts.

Wachovia Online Checking:

Wachovia has several free checking accounts.  The primary checking account is the Wachovia free checking account.  This accounts requires no minimum balance and has no monthly fees.  In addition to being a great free checking account you can add the Wachovia Way2Save option to help you save even more.

Wachovia also has some specialized free checking accounts geared to specific types of individuals like students and senior citizens.  The Wachovia Free Student Checking account is designed specifically for students.  Students can open a checking account, Wachovia will give students a free savings account and allow one free overdraft refund.

Wachovia Savings Account:

Wachovia savings rates are not high interest savings accounts, but for someone looking for a bank account to keep short term savings this might be ok.  The Wachovia Way2Save savings plan will give you a temporary increase in your Wachovia savings rates.  With an initial return of 5.00%, this Way2Save program is a good addition to the Wachovia savings account.  While the regular Wachovia savings rates are low, the Way2Save can dramatically increase your savings returns.

Wachovia CD Rates:

Wachovia CD rates are very competitive and are one of the most popular financial products offered by Wachovia online banking.  Wachovia currently has a featured CD that has a 7 month term and 4.00% Wachovia CD rates.  This 7 month Wachovia CD requires an initial deposit of $5,000.  If you are looking for a good short-term place to save money, this featured CD could be a great option.

Wachovia Credit Cards:

Wachovia also offers a variety of Wachovia credit cards.  Wachovia is currently offering a special introductory zero percent interest for balance transfers.  These Wachovia credit cards will keep this zero percent introductory rate for 12 months.  The Wachovia credit card rates range from 1.99% over the prime interest rate to up to 11.99% plus prime.  Online Banking 411 will take a deep dive on these credit cards in an upcoming article.

Wachovia Gift Cards:

The last Wachovia on line banking service that we will cover today are the Wachovia gift cards.  These gift cards come in values of $25 up to $600.  These Wachovia gift cards are sold to Wachovia checking account, savings account and command asset program customers.  The fee for these Wachovia gift cards is $3.95.  These make great gifts for anyone because they can be used anywhere.

We hope that this review of Wachovia online banking has been informative.  If you have any questions about these Wachovia on line banking products or any other Wachovia online services, please leave them in the comments below.  Our next article will cover Wachovia Visa Buxx cards.  So stay tuned.

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Wachovia Online Banking announced today that is cutting home equity lines of credit for certain of its customers.  This cut is not being made to all of Wachovia bank’s customers, but only a small portion.

Kathy Harrison of Wachovia stated that about 3 percent of Wachovia’s home equity lines of credit customers were seeing their home equity lines decreased.  Some of the Wachovia online banking customers were having their credit lines suspend and others were just having their available credit lines reduced.

Wachovia Bank has stated that the purpose of this home equity lines reduction is due to falling home prices.  As homeowners’ homes decrease in price the equity in the home is reduced.  This reduction in home equity has increased the risk of these loans for Wachovia.

The Wachovia Way 2 Save program is a very interesting way to save money.  If you are a Wachovia online banking customer, you might want to look into signing up for a Wachovia Way2Save account.  The Wachovia Way 2 Save program can be combined with your Wachovia online savings account or your Wachovia free checking account.  Whenever you make purchases with you Wachovia debit card, the change will be deposited into your account and Wachovia will match a portion of it.

If you would like to learn more about the Wachovia Way 2 Save program, here is a Wachovia advertisement describing its Way 2 Save deal.

Online Banking 411 is dedicated to bringing you the latest information about Wachovia online banking. Wachovia CD rates are a big part of the financial products offered by Wachovia online banking. Here is our first article on Wachovia CD rates. Now it is time to do an update for August 2008 for the Wachovia certificates of deposits.

As mentioned before, Wachovia online banking always has a featured CD of the month. The August 2008 wachovia featured cd is the Wachovia 12 month CD. This 12 month Wachovia CD has a high cd rate of 4.25% APY. This featured Wachovia 12-month cd has a minimum opening deposit of $5,000.

If you want a shorter term Wachovia CD, the 9 month certificate of deposit has an APY of 4.15%.  This is only a loss of .10% which might be acceptable to you if having a shorter term is important enough for you.  The 9 month wachovia CD still has a $5,000 opening deposit requirement.

If the Wachovia 9 month CD still has too long of a term, the Wachovia 7 month featured CD has an APY of 4.00% with a cd interest rate of 3.92%.  The 7 month term of this Wachovia CD is great if you are looking for a short term savings option.  However, it too requires $5,000 minimum buy.

The featured CD rates at Wachovia are always good CD rates to check out.  Wachovia seems to always offer competitive CD rates.  Make sure that you check out the Wachovia CD rates at the Wachovia online banking website because CD rates change based upon where you live in the country.

As discussed in our article on Wachovia gift cards and Wachovia Visa Buxx, Wachovia online banking offers some great prepaid gift cards and debit cards.  In the following Wachovia commercial, Wachovia highlights how businesses can use prepaid gift cards and other Wachovia card services to help employees needing cash to pay for business expenses.

In this Wachovia commercial, a trucking company needed to send its truckers to Florida to help deliver supplies to hurricane victims.  Instead of giving cash to their employees, the trucking company gave each trucker Wachovia gift cards.  This is a very creative way to use Wachovia card services.  I also think that Wachovia Visa Buxx could be helpful in these types of circumstances, but in helping parents to give money to their kids.

I hope that you enjoy this Wachovia video.

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