by Edward James

Created on: June 13, 2010

In my opinion the internet is one of the best inventions ever. It has changed my life in so many ways and all of them are for the better. Whilst there are many reviews about the internet most of these tend to focus on specific website and the advantages and disadvantages of each. I'm just trying to illustrate how it has helped me. So here is how the internet has changed me, in no particular order:

i) Banking

Keeping an eye on your finances has never been so easy. Pre online banking you had to go in to a local branch and request a mini statement. Or wait for the monthly bank statement to arrive in order to keep tabs on your bank account.

If you are lucky enough to be able to get to the branch, and let's face it many of us work miles from our bank and cannot get to it, then it was possible to keep a daily check on your account. Otherwise, you are a few weeks behind.

I hate going to my local branch. Since I can only get there on Saturdays the queues are huge, the staff are inexperienced 'Saturday' students and they are more concerned with trying to sell you insurance or change your mortgage than actually do what you want.

Now I can access my account within 5 minutes, set up direct debits and standing orders, cancel direct debits and standing orders, make a payment, request a cheque book (does anyone still use these? (other than businesses)), view historic statements. The list is endless.

Whilst there are concerns over security I have not had any problems with unauthorized access to my account. I have a 10 digit number on the first screen, followed by 3 numbers from a 4 digit pin (theses are selected at random), followed by 3 characters from my password (which is 12 characters consisting of both alpha and numerics). There are thousands of permutations.

Whilst there have been scams where office cleaners have set up devices to trace passwords of office staff etc I must stress that I only ever access my online bank account on my private computer. I would NEVER use a shared computer in an internet café or one at work since I believe there is a real security risk here.

There are phising scams about and I frequently get emails from 'banks' saying my online access is in doubt and I have to follow a link and re-register. These only come from Egg, Halifax, Lloyds TSB and Barclays. I do not, and never have had have an account with these banks so I delete them immediately. It is common knowledge that the bank will never ask for your password in full so it still amazes

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