What is an Online Bank Account?

Online accounts are basically bank accounts. They do not differ from these financial products, except that they are opened and all operations are carried out digitally.

However, this single differentiating note is more than enough for the different banks to consider them as an independent financial product, given that the offer made on them may differ from traditional bank accounts.

Online accounts are not in themselves a type of bank account, but a support for contracting and managing bank accounts.

In other respects, an online account should offer the same services as a regular bank account.

This type of financial product acts as a support for larger financial operations with the entity (for example, they are used to debit the instalments of a loan, a mortgage or to pay the interest that we could get with a bank deposit).

They are a basic instrument for maintaining a banking relationship. Hence the importance of selecting the right one.

Bank accounts are a basic product, the decision to contract one or another will mark the management of our personal finances. Hence the importance of knowing all its features, advantages and conditions.

Since checking accounts (including online accounts) represent the product on which the customer carries out his day-to-day financial operations (salary collection, bill payments, linking with his credit or debit card, etc.), opening a checking account means establishing a more or less lasting link with the bank. The conditions of these products must therefore be taken into account.

As far as online accounts are concerned, the great advances in communication and the regulation that makes remote signature possible, make their existence possible.

What types of online accounts can we open?

When talking about bank accounts we can mention several types. Each model of bank account has its main functions, which cover a particular need of the client.

Consequently, online accounts can also be of several types:

Checking account: this is a product mainly designed to carry out financial operations. The management of the customer’s collections and payments is its function, in addition to acting as a support for the contracting of other products provided by the bank.
Savings account: a type of bank account designed to establish a deposit of funds. With the particularity that it is a deposit with no maturity date for withdrawing funds (demand deposit). The number of operations that can be performed with a savings account is more restricted. The money deposited in them earns interest in our favor, as a general rule. As their name suggests, they are a type of account for building up and safeguarding savings.
On the other hand, an online account could also be a securities account. A product similar to a bank account, except that, instead of being contracted to deposit money and manage it, its task is the management of securities (shares, bonds, etc.). However, this type of account must also be linked to a checking account that supports it.

There are as many types of online accounts as there are bank account models.

In addition, a payroll account can also be opened online. This is a type of checking account that offers a series of advantages for direct deposit of your salary or similar recurring income.

In short, there are several types of bank accounts on the market. The online accounts, since they are only the same accounts offered by the entities, contracted and managed through the Internet, can be opened under all the existing modalities.

Features of online accounts

As mentioned above, the defining feature of online accounts is the use of this channel to perform all operations with this product, from opening to cancellation, including all the management that any type of bank account allows.

In this way, online accounts allow us to perform all operations remotely. The user only needs to have a computer and/or a mobile device, in addition to the corresponding Internet connection.

Through the digital medium, we can carry out all the procedures for the opening of the bank account, knowing the conditions offered by the bank. It is also possible to open joint accounts, those in which there are several co-owners. We even have the option of adding a person as authorized to operate with that account.