Switching banks is not a decision to take lightly. Apart from the potential for disrupted financial transactions, there is also the possibility that you may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

In the case of a small business, the decision becomes even more significant given that a disruption of any kind in a company’s cash flow can have a huge impact on trading and credit.

However, for an SME the move away from the traditional high street and into online banking can prove to be worthwhile.

“My bank closed its local branch office, replaced the staff who knew us with completely uninterested telephone agents,” recounts an executive in the publishing industry, in terms that indicate how angry he still is over the dispute that occurred 15 months ago.

“They then refused to allow us a short extension of the overdraft while waiting for a fully documented, major, but delayed payment that would take us back into positive cash flow”, he continues.

“We were unable to pay staff, except by borrowing from a director’s own personal savings and I had to divert a lot of time to talking to useless idiots on the phone who told me that it was for my good and that of my business that they refused to help. Worse still, when I said that my local branch manager used to regularly allow overdrafts for small periods, one customer service idiot told me that lacking personal pressure enabled them to make better, less-emotive decisions.”

The executive says that despite being with the bank for 25 years, he decided to investigate the world of online banking.

“After initial problems while the old bank delayed transfer for as long as possible, we have found the new banking system much more efficient than working with the high street banks and the service is much better, with real people on the end of the phone who try to understand what you are saying,” he explains.

“In the end, the old bank needs to be thanked for its awful service – without it we would probably still be with them. Its awful service forced us away and allowed us to discover that online banking, for all its challenges, brings serious benefits to the small business.”

Like many other businesses, this one now finds online banking considerably more attractive and efficient – able to handle transactions as and when wanted, check on cash flow and payments at any time you want, and the absence, currently at least, of bank charges. “We’ve been able to avoid all late payments since going online. You can get access 24 hours a day, seven days a week so, although we work fairly normal hours, there are times when all hell lets loose to finish a rush job and it’s all too easy then to forgot administrative tasks until it’s too late, but not with online banking.”

Change a few minor details and this could be the story of any of tens of thousands of small businesses. But, for all its attractions, online banking must be approached very carefully, with security at the front of considerations.

For many small businesses, especially those that don’t handle significant amounts of cash, banking security may well be a fairly new consideration. Cyberspace criminals are often active, trying to get into your computer systems to find out details of your passwords and other information which they can use to make virtual mugging far more effective than physical smash and grab.

Of course, firewalls, physhing detectors, virus jabbers and all the paraphernalia of ordinary online activities are absolutely essential. Spyware that gets into systems and notes details of what is typed in could easily lead to crooks finding out details of passwords and other information needed to gain access and control of your funds.