If you feel it’s time to switch to digital banking to make use of the financial products and services it offers on your mobile phone, tablet or computer, we’ve got some practical tips so you can make the transition in the most natural and simplest way.

The customised process of digital transformation lets us do banking with IT tools on a website or an app, reducing visits to the ATM or our bank branch.

Where do we start? It is important to understand the processes are constantly changing. Technology is progressing at great speed, and there will always be new developments helping us ride the wave of innovation with new digital products and services. Adapting to new tools and platforms is a learning process in which an open mind will be key. In the long run, it will make us proud of our ability to self-manage and adjust. We start by making small changes in order to adapt to the new situation gradually.

First, we must see which digital platform best suits our circumstances and needs to decide the one we prefer and find most appealing. The same applies to the support we will use. We have a wide range of options: website or app? Smartphone or tablet? Which one do I prefer in order to speak with my relationship manager? Are there banking tasks I still want to carry out at the branch?

When we have decided how to go about this, we can contact our bank to activate online banking and obtain an access code. Once our online banking service is set up, we can see a menu with all available options and start making transactions digitally. This will be a good time to learn how to carry out simple tasks like making payments or transfers. When we feel comfortable with the service, we can move on to more complex tasks.

We should always be mindful of security in this process. It is important to use a trusted browser and only visit secure websites. Don’t forget to check the address of the website you are browsing: it has to start with HTTPS. Websites with addresses starting with HTTP are not secure and allow any information to be intercepted easily.

It is also important to pay attention to passwords, the apps we use and the safety of our mobile telephone and bank card. It’s very useful to sign up for alert messages on payment transactions sent to help us monitor all our debit/credit card activity. We will be notified of any suspicious activity immediately in order to contact our bank.