Deposit Checks To Your Bank By Taking a Photo

Pickens writes "The Mercury News reports that consumers will soon be able to deposit a check by snapping a photo of it with a cell phone and transmitting an encrypted copy to their bank. Although some critics contend paperless deposits are an attempt by the banking industry to eliminate 'float,' the standard one- or two-day waiting period between the time someone writes a check and the time the money is actually taken out of their account, actually remote-deposit capture started out as a way for big companies and financial institutions to process huge numbers of checks without having to ship them around the country. 'Our customers are becoming more and more tech-savvy,' said an SVP for mobile banking at Citibank. 'We're trying to support those people on the go.' Although the process adds a new wrinkle to concerns about fraud and the privacy of financial data, banks and the technology companies helping them say they have largely overcome these concerns. Another bank SVP said, 'For many institutions struggling to raise deposits and differentiate, this is an outstanding offering they can roll out inexpensively [note: interstitial]. It's a sticky product.'"

Comments

Checks

[sopssa]

Or what if US just stops using inferior checks and just wires money like rest of the world? It's also possible to even push money in to credit cards directly, in addition to normal bank wires. Checks are insecure, inconvenient and pretty useless in today's electronic world. For non-electronical purposes you can just use cash.

Re:Checks

[Securityemo]

Mod parent up - this suggestion, together with "tech-savy", sounds absolutely retarded when you're used to european instant wire transfers. Who runs the US banking system, stuffy 200-year old vampires?

Re:Checks

[realsilly]

Good God, push your money into to credit cards directly? Are you insane? Can you imagine the fees the credit card companies can and would likely impose?

Your deposit is too small - FEE
Your deposit is too big - FEE
Your deposit is greater than your minimum payment we'll just apply your paycheck to what you owe us and here's a Fee for that service - FEE
Your deposit is not every week - FEE
We don't like who you work for, they are not in our network - FEE
Your direct deposit bounced - FEE

Ok so those are a little crazy, but if you look at what credit card companies employ already, those aren't that far off.

Re:Checks

[Lumpy]

That would mean forcing the banks to serve the customer instead of the shareholders.

Are you INSANE???????

customers are nothing but pests that must be tolerated.

Re:Checks

[ircmaxell]

Agreed. And with the direct photo taking of checks, you are removing one of the layers of security that they have (the security paper they are printed on)... I wonder how much of an increase in check photoshoping, err I mean forging we'll see...

Re:Checks

[aicrules]

I haven't paid by anything other than electronic methods for years now...what bank is screwing you?

Re:Checks

[AndrewNeo]

This is something I have never understood. Why on earth do normal people use banks when there are credit unions?

Re:Checks

[Lumpy]

All american ones.

If I transfer cash to a friend it costs me $25.00 processing fee plus a $15.00 transaction fee.

This is normal for american banks.

Granted I could use a credit card and pay interest on that but why should I do that. credit cards are for credit NOT bill payment.

I still write a check to pay my electric bill because the electric company charges an extra $3.50 for me to pay electronically.

It's all about screwing the customer, banks love to do that here in the United states. Over in europe they are more restricted when it comes to screwing people.

Re:Checks

[mdwh2]

Although useful, and I do often do that myself, it's a long way of replacing cheques in all situations:

What if I want to give someone money when I don't have an Internet connection? (Similarly with a wire - I can't believe that the OP of this thread thinks going into a bank is easier than just writing out a cheque, although maybe these things have different names in the UK to the US?)

Or what if I don't have the security keypad device thing that my bank requires me to use? Or I don't have access to the strong passwords on me at that moment? What if the bank introduces new security measures, and you can't access the website until then (yes, mad as it sounds, Barclays pulled this one on me, when they started requiring the aforementioned keypad device things).

What if the website's "down for maintenance"?

What about liability? In the UK, there have been cases of people paying the wrong person, and it's their fault because they're the ones who typed it in - the recipient legally is entitled to the money. If there's a mistake due to the bank person typing it in wrong, it's harder for them to argue this.

Give me something that satisifies all of those, and I'll throw away my chequebook. Remember that most of the pain for dealing with a cheque is on the recipient - what incentive do I have to take on the issues listed above, if I'm giving someone money? (Of course if someone's able to accept cards, that's fine, but this doesn't work for personal transactions and some small businesses like B&Bs.)

Re:Checks

[apoc.famine]

You need a better credit card.

I've got one from my credit union. There are no fees. The intrest rate (not that it often applies to me) is reasonable. I have my paycheck direct deposited, and have the option to automatically funnel some amount of money to my card every month. (Since I pay it off every month, I don't.) When I want to pay, it's three clicks and done.

And there are no fees. For anything but overdrafts.

Stop banking with criminals and thieves. It's stupid.

Re:Checks

[plague3106]

Most people don't treat their house like an ATM. Oh, well some did, and now they're fucked. That's why credit cards are higher interest, BTW. They're unsecured, meaning that if I don't pay, I also won't lose my house, but because they're unsecured its a bigger risk for the bank.

Anyhow... running up 100,000 in debt by having a card linked to your house is a terrible idea.

Most people don't use checks here though; if I need to lend a friend money I have cash. For anything else, I have a debit card tied to my bank account.

Re:Checks

[mdwh2]

Cheques are a pain to receive, but I'd rather that than everyone switching to Paypal, and being dependent on them.

I used them, until they randomly decided they wouldn't accept my cards anymore, no reason given. They have no means of contact, so that was that.

They behave like a bank and people use them like a bank, but the problem is they're not, AFAIK, subject to the same rules as banks.

when the U.S. could move to a much better system

What system is that? Not Paypal, I hope.

Re:Checks

[Registered Coward v2]

USA is insane. I mean, the entire cheque-thing ? Hello ? As if it's not ridicolous to begin with, do you send email by handwriting it on paper, then taking a PHOTO of the letter, and sending that to your friend ? No ? Then why is doing the same thing with cheques reasonable ?

Well, checks do have some advantages

I can simply write one for a service instead of having to gain internet access, find the person's account and transfer the balance. Do I really want to do that for every transaction. No; I prefer deciding when to use electronic transfer.

I can avoid giving out my bank account information - I deposit checks simply by scanning them into my account; I don't have to provide everyone that sends me money with my account details; the security of which becomes questionable as more people have access to it.

I have a scanned copy of every check I wrote and was paid; if a question arises about payment I can prove they got paid.

I like being able to chose how I pay; rather than have someone tell me I can only use their desired system.

Oh yeah, great idea

[Pojut]

Just what I want on my cell phone...a picture of a piece of paper that has my checking account number and bank routing number on it. ::eye roll::

Re:Oh yeah, great idea

[Lumpy]

checks are supposed to have magnetic ink for the MICR code on the bottom.. Problem is that buying a drum of magnetic toner to print fake checks is trivial. and with scumbag companies like quicken selling blank check paper to anyone, you have a super easy way of faking checks with a $30.00 used laser printer and a $100.00 thowaway computer.

Shit scan someone signature and you can completely fake the check in gimp without effort.

Paper checks needed to be done away with 50 years ago, the greedy banks simple dont want to do wire transfers for free to each other, they love being able to rape their customers with those made-up fees.

Re:Oh yeah, great idea

[mdwh2]

I fully agree with the above two posts. It seems to be something particularly specific to Apple - e.g., also people referring to their "MacBook" or indeed "Mac" rather than generic terms like laptop, computer or PC. You can always tell an Iphone user, as they'll get out their phone and make a big thing of "I'm going to check a website On My Iphone" as so on, as if this was some impressive feat (it was impressive in 2001; it became bog standard on any old phone by about 2005). This probably helps lead to the myth that Apple are most popular, as the 95% with Nokias, Motorolas and so on simply don't mention it.

I wonder if these are the same people that hold their phones and beer bottles so everyone else can see the logo.

I'm surprised Apple haven't added a projector, so that the Apple logo can be projected onto a nearby wall, everytime they get out their phone.

It's even more bizarre and annoying when you get these people referring to "Iphone style devices". Yes, if only we had a generic term for the type of device that the Iphone was...

It must be at least 10 years ago

[badger.foo]

In Europe, checks are rare if not extinct, for something like the last 10 years at least. Direct transfers (IBAN) or similar just work and most people here do their banking mainly online anyhow.

Most likely you could talk your bank here into issuing a check for you if you ask them nicely, but it would almost certainly be more expensive than a straight electronic transfer.

On the other hand, somebody likely had fun and made a modest amount of money developing that check scannin app, so the effort I guess is not totally wasted.

Re:Why not all electronic? No really, why not?

[cyn1c77]

I mean this as a genuine question: why is the US so far behind Europe in this?

I have an answer for you in the form of another question: Is the US actually ahead of Europe in any aspect of life?

(And I am asking that as an American.)

Re:Why not all electronic? No really, why not?

[Pro777]

There is definitely one. Free public bathrooms.

Re:$25 to transfer money to a friend?!

[plague3106]

Great, but what idiot trusts paypal with their money?

Re:$25 to transfer money to a friend?!

[dekemoose]

Banks used to make their money by loaning the money you deposit to other people at higher prices. Interest rates being what they are today it's hard to make the kind of profits that banks are accustomed to that way. They're far more likely to make money by charging various fees, paying you nothing for your deposits and investing your deposits in high paying (assuming they don't fail) risky investment opportunities. In spite of the promise of financial system reform this is very likely to continue.

Re:Why not all electronic? No really, why not?

[cmseagle]

yes.