Tips on how you can bank from home as a senior

Whether you're too busy enjoying your retirement to want to head into a bank branch often or whether it's harder to get out because of mobility restrictions, you want to figure out how to get as many of your banking needs as possible met at home or online. 

Online and mobile banking for seniors in Canada is easier than ever these days and can save you time and energy that you can use for other more important (or more enjoyable) things.

So, how do you get set up so that your banking life is automated, online, and as easy as possible? We'll share our best banking from home tips for seniors below to get you started.

Before we get into our tips for Canadian seniors banking online, it's important to understand why many seniors don't currently use online or mobile banking. Some seniors worry that online banking isn't safe and might even have heard of scams related to online banking that targeted seniors.

However, online banking is incredibly safe, with a number of complex security protocols designed to protect your information and your money when logging onto your account online or via a mobile app. Banks also have policies to help protect their online and mobile banking customers from fraud and ensure that if you are defrauded due to unauthorized activity¹ in your accounts though  online banking, under specific circumstances, your account and money might be restored. Learn more how it works at Scotiabank here.

That said, there are scams that target seniors banking online. The good news is that you can avoid them by knowing what to look for. Some scams try to trick people  into giving banking information and passwords through links in email that go to websites that can look genuine. You can protect yourself by always putting the bank website into the address field on your browser and not clicking links to access it.

If you don't already have an online account set up, you can call your bank or visit the branch to set that up either by yourself or with a friend, family member, or your power of attorney. Choose a password that's easy to remember but too complicated to guess with a mix of letters and numbers.

You want to pick a password that you can remember, like a phrase, that isn’t something that would be easy for a stranger to guess, like common passwords “1234” and “password.” Don’t pick passwords like your birth date, telephone number, license plate, address or other easy to guess combinations.

When you are banking online, it can be helpful to make a bookmark so you can easily find the website whenever you want. If you want to do your banking from your phone, you will need to download your bank's mobile app. This can be done on the app store of any major smartphone manufacturer. You just find your bank, install the app and then you're set up! Your debit card number usually functions as your account ID, but you can often set up an account name to make logging in easier. You can even save your password to your phone or set up a biometric password on your phone that uses your thumbprint so that it's easy to log in.

It makes sense to reduce the work it takes to pay your bills by setting up automatic payments on all your regular bills. The easiest way to do this is to set up an automatic debit from either your bank account or credit card for things like subscriptions, rent, mortgage payments, phone bills, utilities, or memberships. You can then also set up an automatic payment of your credit card. Online and mobile banking apps usually have a payments section where you can do this with a few taps or clicks. This is a great way to make sure that you never miss a payment.

Do you get cheques or regular payments from anyone? Instead of getting cheques, ask if the company, organization, government body, or individual can send you the money via a regular bank transfer. You can do this with cheques, like those from the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security. This will reduce the amount of work you need to do to accept and deposit the money. You can check on your online or mobile app that it's been deposited on time.

Do you get money deposited into your checking account and then need to deposit it into other accounts at the same or other financial institutions to cover specific expenses or reach savings goals? That's easy to set up with online banking where you can transfer money from one account to another in seconds or set up recurring account transfers.

A lot of people think you need to go into the bank to cash a cheque but that's no longer the case! Mobile banking apps allow seniors banking online to take a photo of their cheque with their smartphone or tablet and deposit the cheque from the comfort of their home. This is one of the best banking from home tips for seniors because it saves you regular trips to a bank branch!

Want to send your grandkids money for their birthday? Want to send a friend your half of the cost of flowers you sent to a mutual friend who needed cheering up? You can skip the trip to a branch or ATM and send an Interac e-transfer transaction in minutes via your online or mobile app. All you need is the person's name, and either their phone number or their e-mail address. You can also save recipients to a list making it easier to send them money next time with a few taps or clicks.

One of the benefits of online and mobile banking for seniors is that you can cut down on the paper bills that you get for your account statements and get up to date information about your accounts. With online and mobile banking, you can get access to statements for your bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts all in one place and in real time. This can also help you keep an eye on your account activity to see if there is anything irregular that you need to discuss with your bank (like fraud). 

There are a lot of things that you can do with your mobile app or online banking but what if you find using it confusing? While banks make their online or mobile banking for seniors as easy as possible, it's still sometimes difficult to get started.

Many banks have tutorials on their sites, hotlines for online help, and help sections. If you're still unsure, you could also ask a family member or someone at your local branch to help you figure out the ins and outs of online banking.

You can reach out to your bank over the phone to both do your banking and if you have questions around how to do your banking online or on the app.