Can you imagine what a website designed by bank managers might look like? Welcome to the world of online banking!

I have been using the Royal Bank of Scotland's service for almost a year, having graduated from their telephone banking. And I wouldn't be without it now. It's so convenient to pay bills and check my balance at any time of the day or night from my home PC.

Not all major UK banks allow online access, but those that do tend to offer the same services: checking your balance, online statements with up-to-the-minute information, bill payments, standing orders and direct debits, transfers between accounts and ordering cheque books.

If, like me, you want payment for a bill to leave your account at the last possible moment you can set up a transfer up to 120 days in advance. This saves having to remember to post a cheque on the right day, and the inevitable reminder or interest charges when you forget. Plus, you don't run out of cheques.

You can also search for transactions (useful when you can't remember if you paid a bill), print custom statements between any two dates, and check if money has actually made it into your account before making that big payment. Some banks allow you to apply for loans or buy ISAs online. The biggest disadvantage is still having to use post, an ATM or counter service to pay money in.

Of course, things go wrong. I regularly use the service to pay off a store credit card. The first few payments seemed to clear correctly and were credited to the card. Then the credits stopped - it turned out I'd used the wrong reference number when I set up the payment. The money was still leaving my account, leaving several hundred pounds lost in cyberspace. It took several calls to the bank to explain the problem: once they understood, the money was found and the problem fixed in less than a day.

The big drawback to online banking is that compared with most web services it's inflexible and hard to use with lots of restrictions; the Royal Bank of Scotland service only works with PCs, not Macs, supports Internet Explorer but not Netscape, and downloads special software to your PC every time the service is upgraded. A separate security number, sent to you via snail mail, is needed for every PC you want to use it on. As a result, I still use telephone banking to check my bank balance when away from home.

The page design leaves a lot to be desired. The home page of the Royal Bank of Scotland service is full of graphics and sometimes takes almost a minute to download. Logging on involves accessing eight different pages into which various passwords are typed before your balance appears on the screen. Online help is rudimentary but does include the number of an informed help desk.

Security is draconian, as you might expect. I need three different passwords and a customer number to get into the service, none of which I am supposed to write down. I would find this difficult if I had accounts with more than one bank, or wanted online access to my mortgage or credit cards as well. But I'm glad they're keeping my money safe.

The general clunkiness of online banking is reflected in the low take-up: Barclays had only 70,000 online customers at the end of 1998. Some banks still charge for online transactions, although they cost considerably less than a counter service.

For now, online banking will remain the preserve of those who like the flexibility, or who are prepared to switch banks to get good interest rates on their savings. Simpler security mechanisms, better user interfaces and a wider range of services are needed. Come on, banks! There are 10m potential UK customers out there on the web. Who's going to be first to make online banking fun?

• Bill Hibbert is group IT director of Guardian Media Group.

www.find.co.uk/banking will tell you if your bank allows online access via the web.