I don't think anybody could say that internet banking is 100% safe and guaranteed to protect your heard-earned dosh - but then neither is getting cash out of a cash machine. It's just a different type of threat. Banks are spending a lot of money on making their online services as secure as possible, and although I know there are others here who have had bad experiences, my own experience (with Natwest, over the last 10 years) has been entirely good and I've never had any fraud problems. For me, there are a few key rules I follow.. I use a different password from my other internet services (email, Amazon, etc), I avoid writing down my login details anywhere (and destroying the piece of paper sent to me with them on originally), and try and use a banking service which gives you a physical 'token' which reads off a set of digits for you to type in when you login (sometimes called 'two-factor authentication'), as these involve more sophisticated security. Not to say that others here who have had problems haven't done exactly the same things.. I just think these are good things for a first-timer to aim for. A lot of problems you hear from others others citing fraud through internet banking are just as likely to be due to them purchasing from less reputable online stores who don't transmit and store your credit card details securely.