Quote - From the way this post is written, it sounds like you are confused about actual online banking and credit usage. 

That's what came to my mind at first, but if they are already using something like PayPal then they already use online banking.  Just on the spending side and not the savings side.

As for online banking being safe,  Well it's only as safe as you make it and as safe as the banks efforts are to keep your money safe.  If your bank doesn't make an effort to recover your money or take a loss from money being stolen from your account then don't bother with that bank.  Some banks keep watch for unusual expenditures so if there's a spending pattern that seems unnatural then they will try to stop it from happening as well as replace the money if the crooks are successful.

like one poster said. never login to a bank account through an email. And I would highly recommend that you get a new email account specifically for financial purposes. That way anything dealing with your bank should only come in through that one email. This is somethign I do so when I see bank emails on my other email addresses I know right away it's a scam because the banks don't know my other email addresses.

And never save your password in your browser or access your bank account from a public computer.