Open A Checking Account Online
If you're looking to open a checking account online, there are a wide variety of options available nowadays. Most online banks will allow you to open a checking account with an online form. The process is most often quick and painless. You should have your social security number available, along with bank routing and account numbers from any other bank accounts you'd like to link your new online checking account with. With the necessary information in hand, you can open a
checking account with online banks like ING Direct in under five minutes.
Open a Checking Account Online with Bigger Banks
More and more traditional banks now allow you to
open a checking account online as well. Bigger banks have a few more hoops for you to jump through that pure online banks, though. Many require you to fax or mail in large quantities of paperwork once you have submitted the online form to open your checking account. Some are more streamlined, however.
Washington Mutual, for example, allows you to open a savings and checking account online together with a single quick, painless application.
Online Checking Security
If you are reluctant to open a checking account online because of security concerns, you should reconsider. Online checking applications are invariably encrypted, and quite secure against hacking. You're much more likely to have your personal financial information compromised when you do business with you bank via paper mail than when you open a checking account online. In short, don't let security concerns get in your way.