Banking on the go through mobile phone in itself is a very attractive preposition, but mobile banking offers more. Here is a look at all the possibilities that are available on your mobile.
There are two ways of banking through mobile – Application based and through SMS.
Applications provide better user interface and you do not have to remember short codes like the SMS medium. SMS medium, which works through short codes for every action is a bit cumbersome but then it has universal handset support.
Application, however, are not supported by very low end handsets. You do not need to have a smartphone either, any phone that supports J2ME application, or provides GPRS access, mostly supports these applications.
Almost all the banks in India offer mobile banking facility through both these mediums. While the facilities vary between banks, most of the basic functions such as viewing bank, demat and credit card accounts, transfer of funds to other banks in India are available across all banks.
However, some banks like Standard Chartered and ICICIbank, also offers movie ticket booking mobile banking application. You can also pay utility bills, top up prepaid mobile phone, and book air tickets etc, with applications of banks like ICICI, HDFC, SBI etc.
Other facitilities like opening fixed deposit, finding an ATM or bank branch, list of last transactions are also available with most such applications. The best part is that all these applications are available free to account holders, however you do need to pay for the data it uses.
Mobile banking is also as safe as internet banking with several step verifications, more over till now mobile phones are less prone to Virus attacks compared to laptops or PCs.