Online banks offer checking accounts that are truly paperless. Your statements and your check register are entirely online. You can set up automatic payments for regular monthly bills, and can easily transfer money to them in the form of an electronic check. You can also write checks for people the same way. The money is either automatically transferred into their accounts, or a paper check can be printed and sent. Since so much of what we do today is centered around online services, it is natural to use online banking.