Principal bank will have new online banking on November 13, 2006.
The most important features that the new system will have are (1) ebills and (2) real-time transaction reporting.
... still no ACH transfers
More info from the Principal Bank website:
Online Banking
Soon you'll be able to:
- * View your balance and transactions in real-time. No more waiting until the next business day to see your electronic transactions and resulting balance changes.
* Create or change your online "Preferences":
o Change your personal login ID - you no longer have to use your Social Security Number.
o Update your e-mail, home address and other contact information.
* Send and receive secure messages from Principal Bank from "Messages" in the top navigation.
* Reset your password online.
* Stop payments, order checks and copies of statements and checks from within your account pages.
* View account balances when transferring funds.
* Download your account information and transaction data to popular personal financial management software like Quicken, QuickBooks and MS Money (Quicken for Mac coming soon).
* View your last login date and time to better monitor account access.
* Customize your transaction searches.
BillPay:
Principal Bank has joined with CheckFree, a leading electronic billing and payment provider, to bring you a better online BillPay experience, with new features that let you:
* Schedule your bills to be paid by the due date, rather than by the payment sent date. In the "Send Payments On" field, input the date you want the payment to arrive.
* Worry less - your payment is guaranteed to arrive on time.
* Receive your bills electronically. E-bill presentment sends your bills to your online banking "inbox" where you can easily review and pay them, eliminating the clutter and risk of paper statements. (Bills, checks and statements stolen from mailboxes are some of the leading causes of identity theft, learn more about identity theft.)
* Set payments for same-day processing by 4 PM Central Time, if allowed by the biller. The BillPay system will let you know if this is an option for each biller.
* Review up to one year of scheduled payment status reports.
* Enroll for BillPay online in real-time.
Login security:
We're stepping up security with multi-factor authentication, the latest innovation in online account protection.
When multi-factor authentication becomes available over the next few months, the Principal Bank login page will ask only for your LoginID. Enter that correctly and the next page will ask you for your Password and walk you through a simple, two-step enrollment process. It only takes a minute to set up and adds another layer of security to your account.
To enroll, you will select an image and create your own phrase that will be automatically displayed when Principal Bank recognizes your computer at login. When you see the image and phrase, you'll know you're on the valid Principal Bank site and it's safe to enter your password and access your accounts.
During enrollment, you will also choose three challenge questions and answers that only you know. These questions and answers will be presented in the future only if additional identity verification is necessary, for example, if you forget your password or sign in from a computer we do not recognize.
You will be able to register computers you use frequently to make logging in easier, yet more secure.
