The idea is really interesting. Mobile or Internet banking has already saved us much time from walking to the bank’s branch office to manage our accounts and transfer money. The USAA bank, a private bank and insurance company in San Antonio of U.S., will soon introduce an innovative mobile solution to handle check deposit. You’ll no longer need to visit a bank or even use ATM to deposit a check. What you need to do is: Pickup your iPhone and take a shot of your check!
As reported by New York Times, the USAA bank will allow its customers to deposit checks via iPhone. The bank’s iPhone application will be launched some time this week. To deposit a check, simply pickup your iPhone and launch the bank’s application. Photograph both side of your check via iPhone’s built-in camera and hit the Send button. That’s it. The images of the check will then transfer to the bank’s deposit-taking system for further processing. To see how it works, check out the video:
You may wonder how the customer should handle the physical check. As the bank mentioned, customer do not need to mail in the check and it is suggested to void it or discard it. For those who may want to keep the check, you can also file it in a safe place.
The feature will benefit the bank and its customer. However, the check deposit feature will not be available all customers. The bank claimed only customers who are eligible for credit and have some type of insurance through USAA will be permitted to use the deposit feature that accounts for around 60% of the customer base.
I’m excited to see how mobile technology is changing the way we interact with our banks. The check deposit feature via iPhone is compelling but frankly I seldom get a check or issue a check. This feature is probably not designed for me.
To learn more about USAA bank’s iPhone application, you can check out its official homepage.
What do you think about this innovative banking solution? What else do you want your bank to provide? Feel free to leave comment and share your thought.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
i wonder how the banks plan to tackle fraud in terms of fake check images. i foresee there’d inevitably be cases where the check images are altered through photo-editing softwares.
It’s an interesting idea, but this may not be the best implementation.
Technically a check is just an account owner’s instruction to his own bank. If a bank is satisfied as to it’s authenticity, that bank honors the check. Depending on the precautions taken and the relationships involved the risk are taken on by different parties.
The question in this system is, who carries the risk and under what circumstances. If it’s the consumer–bad. If it’s the institution, well they are well heeled and employ armies of lawyers, actuaries, and accountants. They play this game and get burned it’s on them (until WE bail ‘em out, of course).
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