7 Reasons to Try Digital Banking

As technology evolves, the way businesses serve consumers also evolves, and more often than not, new technology provides consumers with additional choices and enhanced services. In recent years, people have become more comfortable using their phones to order food, buy groceries, hail ride-sharing services, etc. Similarly, people are realizing the advantages of using their phones to conduct financial transactions. More and more VyStar members prefer the convenience of conducting their financial business from the comfort of their computer or mobile device.

Digital banking offers convenience. Still, some people are hesitant to adapt to it because they worry it will lead to the end of brick-and-mortar financial institutions. If this sounds like you, don’t worry—VyStar isn’t going anywhere. VyStar is continuously expanding our presence by adding branch locations. In 2019, we opened six new branches, and that’s because VyStar employees love providing personalized service to members, service that can’t always be provided through an app. Ultimately, though, we want to offer options and convenience to our members, and that’s why we make a lot of the services we offer directly available to you through Internet & Mobile Banking. If you’re still holding out, here are a few reasons to give our digital banking services a try.

Easily Track Spending

If you’re like me, you open your VyStar app 50 times a day—even if it’s just to confirm you’re still too broke to buy the Kismet, Shad Khan’s yacht. Checking your accounts daily through the app is essentially the same as balancing a transaction register and checking it against a transaction receipt you’d receive from the branch or ATM, except using the app requires much less time and effort. The ability to easily track your transactions can also help you identify areas in which you may be overspending so you can work on any necessary budgeting.

24/7 Availability

Our online services are available 24/7, unless we’re performing system maintenance or experiencing an unexpected outage. Say you suddenly remember your auto loan payment is due and you need to get to a branch as soon as possible to pay it, but—similarly to what happens when you find yourself craving Chick-fil-A^® on a Sunday—you remember the establishment is closed. Luckily for you, even on non-business days, VyStar’s Internet & Mobile Banking services are available, so you can easily transfer funds to your VyStar loan and we’ll receive notice that you made your on-time payment that day. Our app may not be able to cook waffle fries, but it is able to offer peace of mind and convenience.

Access to Electronic Statements

There are numerous benefits to receiving electronic statements (e-Statements). They work the same as paper statements—only more efficiently—as e-Statements allow you to access and print past statements without needing to physically store them. Through VyStar’s Internet & Mobile Banking, you have access to e-Statements for regular accounts for up to 36 months. For credit card accounts, you have access to the past 24 months. VyStar eliminated fees associated with getting statement printouts at a branch, but many other financial institutions still charge for this service, so opting in to e-Statements can actually save you money.

Convenience

If you have the VyStar mobile app on your phone, it’s kind of like you’re carrying around an entire branch in your pocket. What’s better than running an errand without actually having to run anywhere? Through our digital banking services, you can deposit a check (via our mobile app), make payments, view e-Statements and more. You can even apply for a loan through Internet & Mobile Banking.

Schedule Payments

How time-consuming is it to have to keep track of each of your payments, outgoing transfers, subscriptions and all the other stuff you have to remember to pay every month? With digital banking, you can schedule ongoing payments and transfers, so something like paying rent can be done in an instant instead of driving to a branch, waiting in a long line, getting a cashier’s check and realizing as you’re walking out the door that you locked your keys in your car. (No, this has never happened to me, why do you ask?) Then, after all that, you have to rush to your apartment complex to drop off the check before they close. With automatic transfers, you avoid scenarios like these altogether. You also avoid any late fees associated with making late payments.

Eco-Friendly

Converting to digital banking doesn’t only benefit you. It helps the environment, too! By banking online, you’re helping to eliminate paper statements, bills, checks, loan paperwork, etc., which all contribute to environmental waste. Not to mention, you’ll be reducing carbon emissions by not driving to a branch.

Personalized Security

Digital banking allows you to closely monitor your accounts by providing the option of signing up for text alerts and multi-factor authentication, which we strongly encourage. With text alerts, you can customize your preferences to allow notifications if your balance drops below a specified amount, if your username or password has been changed and more. Multi-factor authentication allows you to provide more than one kind of verification method to prove you are who you say you are. This personalized security is one of the many ways VyStar is committed to helping protect your online identity.

Instead of thinking of our branch services and digital services as separate entities, think of digital banking as being supplemental to our branch services. We know that some people still prefer going into a branch to handle their transactions, and that’s totally fine, but we would be doing our members a disservice if we didn’t spread the word about everything our digital banking services encompass. Every day we are working to enhance our digital banking services, so we can skip all the surface-level stuff and jump right to getting to know our members on a deeper level.