Online banking overtakes telephone

More people are now using online banking than telephone banking, new figures reveal.

In 2006 some 48 per cent of internet users had an online bank account, according to data released today by UK payment association Apacs.

Overall, some 16.9 million adults now have online bank accounts, with two in three of these going online at least once a week.

This compares with 15.4 million people using telephone banking, making 2006 the first year online banking has overtaken telephone banking in the UK.

In the last year the number of people using telephone banking has fallen 600,000 while in the last four years the number of Britons with online bank accounts has risen from 7.5 million to 16.9 million.

"Our research shows that increasingly, if you are under 35, you are more than likely to be turning to the internet rather than the phone to manage your finances," said Sandra Quinn, director of communications at Apacs.

More Britons are also using their online bank account more regularly - one user in five goes online daily, almost three times as many as in 2002.

Additionally, 90 per cent of online banking users also shop online.

People banking online will typically have more than one account accessible over the internet, 58 per cent of those who access their main current account online also use the internet for another and 98 per cent of people who access their credit card online look at multiple accounts this way.

All age groups are using online bank accounts more, with 16 to 24-year-olds having the largest growth in online banking in the last four years, going from 13 per cent in 2002 to 26 per cent in 2006.

Most adults between the ages of 25 and 54 that use the internet now have an online bank account.

But there remains an age split between Britons under 55, who prefer the internet to telephones for banking, and over 55, who prefer telephone banking.