It is not a separate online offering and interest rates are therefore identical says NatWest spokesman Nick

It is not a separate online offering, and interest rates are therefore identical,” says NatWest spokesman Nick Gill.The benefit is that you can access your bank account at a time and place convenient to you whether at home or work, check your balance and recent transactions, print statements, set up and amend standing orders, pay bills, transfer money into any UK bank account, and so on.Stephen Aaron, financial adviser with the David Aaron Partnership who banks online with NatWest, says although online current account offerings from major high street banks deliver no financial advantages, savers do benefit. “You get significantly higher rates of interest on their savings accounts. NatWest pays 5.25 per cent on £10,000 in its instant access e-savings internet account, but only 2.75 per cent on its Diamond Reserve branch-based account, which also requires one-month’s notice for you to get your money.”Nevertheless, the numbers signing up to online banking services with major banks is impressive. Barclays launched its online service in June 1998, and now has a massive 1.7 million online customers. NatWest, which launched in autumn 1999, has 500,000 web-based customers. How many of these use their online service on a regular basis is less certain. A recent survey by consultants Cap Gemini Ernst & Young showed 4 per cent of banking transactions are web-based, although by 2003 this figure should rise to 25 per cent.Stand-alone bank egg, launched in October 1998, now boasts 1.5 million customers for its range of services.

It has no immediate plans to offer a current account, and spokesman Mark Maguire claims the future of online current account banking is not as bright as many believe. “We will only launch a current account if we feel the customer appetite is there,” he says.Cahoot, launched in June 2000, certainly cannot match the numbers provided by the likes of Barclays and egg, so far attracting 60,000 current account customers and a similar number of credit card customers. However, a spokesman said these figures are in line with its launch targets, and it aims to have 200,000 customers by the end of this year. Smile, backed by the Co-operative Bank, has 200,000 account holders, although this includes all types of account.In November 2000 Halifax launched Intelligent Finance, which offers the option of combining an online current account with a savings account, mortgage, credit card and any personal loan It pays 5 per cent on its current account.

However, if you also take out a mortgage, you can use money sitting in your current or savings account to reduce the outstanding balance on your home loan. Intelligent Finance’s chief executive Jim Spowart says it is opening nearly 4,000 new current accounts a week, and the service offers telephone, internet and WAP banking, but no branches.Contacts: Barclays Online www.ibank.barclays.co.uk; David Aaron Partnership 01908 281544; Egg www.egg ; First-e www.first-e /uk; Intelligent Finance www.if ; NatWest www.natwest ; Simple Savings 020-8863 4100. Online brokers have a lot to answer for. Never before has it been so easy or cheap to play the stock market.

Which helps to explain the dramatic rise of new technology stocks early last year, particularly in America. The subsequent collapse of those same stocks probably played a key role in the downturn in the US economy

Online brokers have a lot to answer for. Never before has it been so easy or cheap to play the stock market. Which helps to explain the dramatic rise of new technology stocks early last year, particularly in America. The subsequent collapse of those same stocks probably played a key role in the downturn in the US economy.
The impact on those very same online brokers – both in the US and in Britain – is already proving severe. The number of trades is falling drastically, and several brokers are laying off staff – or even selling their entire businesses.But online stockbroking is here to stay Its attractions over phone-based dealing are irresistible.