Coming Soon, Smartphone-Based Banking

An anonymous reader writes "Banks will be offering a new service at the end of the year that will let customers take a photo of a paper check and have it be deposited in their bank accounts, making the smartphone one step closer to an ATM."

USAA

[Scyth3]

USAA does this already. It's not "coming soon", it's already here. It's more or less who's still catching up.

Re:DUPE

[GiovanniZero]

Mod parent up, I'm on usaa and I've been depositing my checks using my iphone and now my android phone for about a year now.

Re:DUPE

[penguinchris]

It's not like it was an article that slipped under the radar, either... it has close to 500 comments. Easily one of the worst slashdot dupes I can recall :)

"making the smartphone one step closer to an ATM"

[hivebrain]

"This phone will charge your account a $1.50 fee to make this call. This fee is on top of any other fees that may be charged by the phone to which you are dialing."

Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

My credit union has had something just as good and much simpler for years.

You just mail the freaking checks in. You go to your web browser, enter the amounts and info, and mail the check in within a couple days. They immediately credit your account up to $1500 worth of checks while they wait to receive them.

This news is incredible in that is completely non newsworthy.

And I bet my credit union charges much less than your bank for the privilege of checking.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:DUPE

[horatio]

USAA will accept non-military customers. However, the services they provide are severely limited. The only deposit method is a transfer from another bank, visiting a USAA branch in person, or snail-mailing in your checks.

The reason, they explained to me, is that in order to qualify for the "photographic" (scanned image, or iPhone app) deposits, you must have (or qualify for?) three specific services with them including some type of line of credit, insurance, and something else. If you're non-military, you aren't eligible for those services, ergo your options for depositing checks are very limited.

I'm not military (found out about them b/c my brother-in-law is), but I have checking, savings, direct deposit, and EBPP (both bill presentment, where ie the electric company sends USAA my bill and USAA notifies me how much the bill is, and payment - which everyone can do) with them.

Come out of that cave already!

[Dr La]

Seriously, if you Yanks think this is the epitome of modern banking: we Europeans are doubling up in laughter here.

We do things completely electronic here, by direct bank transfers. No need to take photographs of a paper cheque. In fact, I haven't seen a cheque since childhood (when an aunt from Australia sent one. We had a hell of a trouble cashing it).

Re:DUPE

[TheDawgLives]

Most companies have to pre-authorize checks before they will clear. The company sends the check number and amount to their bank. When you deposit said check, your bank sends the check number and amount to the company's bank, that bank notices that the check number a) has not been authorized or b) does not match the authorized amount and notifies your bank to remove deposited amount from your account. You fail and probably go to jail.

Re:Ditch checks!

[Mister Whirly]

That's easy - don't charge a $1300 Macbook on your credit card for someone else. Tell them if they want a Macbook, they can figure out how to pay for it too. See also: don't leave large sums of cash just laying around unprotected. Additionally see also:try not to live with people you cannot trust.

Re:You're taking the piss.

[Dionysus]

Do you get a paper check from your employer?

No

Re:Ditch checks!

[Fex303]

What happens when you charge a $1300 macbook pro to your credit card for someone else, and then need compensation for it?

This objection comes up in every discussion of cheques/checks with Americans. Let's make this clear - the issue you're discussing is a solved problem. All over the rest of the world, you can just transfer money between bank accounts for free.

Here in Australia, when I need to pay my housemate my share of the rent, I log in to my online banking, select 'pay anyone' from the menu, select her name from the list of people I've paid recently (the site autofills her BSB [wikipedia.org] and account numbers), I enter how much I want to give her and it's in her account the next morning. This service is free, works between all banks, credit unions, and building societies, and bounces money back to your account in the event of number and account name mismatch. It is essentially the same as wire transfers, but less complex and without the insane fees for shovelling some bits from one account to another. There is a system of checks (not cheques) and daily limits that keeps fraud from being any more of an issue than in the US.

Many small businesses and eBay sellers prefer this method of payment to any other for obvious reasons - it's free, it's reliable, and minimises effort for all parties.

I'd never used or considered using cheques until I lived in the States. I'm really, really glad that I don't have to keep using them.

Re:Ditch checks!

[michaelhood]

"he scans it and gives it back to me"

In other words, the check was a pointless part of the process. He could as easily entered the numbers from the front of your debit card. Or you could have used a different debit card for the same account (exactly the effect of scanning the numbers on your check).

Completely inaccurate, not even sure where to start. In the US, most debit cards are Visa or MasterCard (and that's what numbers would be on the front), but even 15 years ago when they would have been 'ATM'-type cards not on the Visa/MC networks those numbers are not the ABA (routing) and account numbers from a check.

When someone takes a check from you and scans it like that, it's handled it one of two ways in a "back-office conversion"-

1) Conversion to an EFT and processed on the ACH network under NACHA [wikipedia.org] rules.
2) Info is saved and an Image Replacement Document [wikipedia.org] is generated and submitted into the Federal Reserve system(s) the same way a paper check is (those are 99% scanned now when deposited, not mailed anymore), for settlements between the two banks involved in the transaction.