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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."
This is a dupe from like 2 days ago, which was a dupe from like 6 months ago. USAA has been allowing this for months and months with the iPhone.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
All those nifty security features are completely and totally worthless now?
all over again
Nullius in verba
... only without the cell phone, but with a scanner device of some sort. It's nice to see the technology expand, but one worries about the enhanced potential for check fraud under this new scheme.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I've lived both in Europe and the USA, and I have to say, ditch the checks. Seriously. It's a joke and a pain in the ass.
USAA does this already. It's not "coming soon", it's already here. It's more or less who's still catching up.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/16/0027217/Deposit-Checks-To-Your-Bank-By-Taking-a-Photo?art_pos=67 A similar post appears!
Chexting? ;-)
You americans are funny!
No? Really. Taking a photo of a cheque?
Writing out a cheque, then taking a photo of it? No. You're pulling my leg. And this is an advance?
Why not just transfer the money using the phone?
We can do it here in Europe. They can do it in India and Africa for goodness sake;
http://europe.nokia.com/ovi-services-and-apps/nokia-money
Deleted
"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."
Please me excuse me while I laugh all the way to the bank...
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.
Committing fraud with checks is just as easy whether you take a photo or mail it in. I think it is a great idea for an interim solution. In the end there will be fraud investigation whether it was a photo or a washed check.
Later on down the road I would like to see a secure paperless money system that does not require me to touch dollar bills that came from a strippers g-string and to not stand behind old ladies writing checks at Wal-Mart for $2.68 of merchandise
What types of checks are allowed? Is it all types? Personal and Paychecks?
Can you deposit a money order or cashiers check?
Is there a fee? I'm sure there is.
How long is there a delay between submitting and getting your money?
I thought it was because check fraud is hilariously easy to catch?
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Nope, I'm afraid your wrong, it's crazy outside the US as well...
If you're in the UK, a normal (non-business) bank customer and transferring anything more than a couple of thousand pounds to a foreign bank account, not only do you have to go into the bank branch sit with a member of staff filling in computer details for a half hour, but also the money literally just *disappears* for a couple of days going through some kind of money laundering checks somewhere - oh, and of course the organisation making those checks is, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER, investing that money while they have it and making some interest on it!
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I went to renew my subscription to a magazine on the Internet. Guess what? Cost me $2 to do it that way. No dice. Wrote out a check and mailed it in.
Seriously, there are just so many more fraud opportunities dues to sheer bloody laziness on the part of the banks and their customers. Identity theft? Couldn't happen so readily if the banks would only make you come in there with your driver's license or passport before they go issuing credit cards. The same goes for government institutions.
This idea sounds like it'd make it easy to copy a cheque, Photoshop it and bank it. You wouldn't even need to steal it. Just snap a quick shot with your iPhone and then slip it back. Just make sure you get it in before the owner and you're done.
But then, I've heard you need a taxman or special software to do your taxes, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Only if you have insanely complex tax history. Or are a lazy mofo. I've always done them my self.
I'll just take several pictures of the same check, and by the time they figure it out, I'll have my pay day loan (i.e. already spent then over-drafted). Woo hoo! Rent-town-USA here I come!
because only in america could something as simple as a money transfer be so completely ridiculously involved.
Wait, what? I thought the whole point of this is to make depositing money more convenient. Take a picture and it's deposited. How is that "ridiculously involved"? It's not really any different than the current ATM scanner that just scans the check and deposits it (other than it keeps the check, and that you have to go to an ATM to do it).
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).
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem delendam esse
With automatic electronic transfers between banks, which do not verify the validity of the original check, the person who's going to be screwed by this is the one whose account number is on the fake check. Right now washing out a check, putting in new amounts, and presenting it for cash is a little bit more time-consuming (plus the check is gone) than just photoshopping a check image and scanning it on a phone, or several. The only small deterrent is that the checks are deposited, not paid out in cash immediately. Simple enough to hit up a few pensioners while there's still a bit in their account (or businesses that don't reconcile accounts frequently), wait for the deposits to clear, and clean out the temporary deposit account.
This is such a common misconception. A legal check does not have to be printed on any kind of "security" paper. The only requirements are that it is an unconditional order to pay an amount, and that it has sufficient information to identify where the money comes from (account number, routing number, etc). There are plenty of common stories in the banking world of people writing checks on ridiculous things such as tissue paper, various food items, etc, and requiring the bank to process it. And unless the bank doesn't mind losing the customer, they do, because it is perfectly legal. The "security" features are mostly there as a convenience to the bank, as obviously it is not easy to process a check written on a kleenex.
Alliant Credit Union allows scanned image upload deposit ("eDeposit Plus"). I am hopeful they will jump on the smartphone app bandwagon, though one imagines that a user could take the requisite photographs and then upload them via the Alliant eDeposit interface even today.
Tangential rant: I am in the same situation as you. USAA burned me on the Deposit@Home service with their misleading website. I opened a USAA credit card *solely* to satisfy the "line of credit" requirement for D@H (yes, the site said a credit card was sufficient). After the cc account was opened, I still could not use D@H. I called and confirmed that their site was incorrect and that I had to qualify for insurance coverage as well. I immediately closed the now extraneous cc account. Wasted time and an entry on my credit report.
I have made Alliant my primary account now. They offer better interest rates than USAA (1.78% currently on checking accounts) and a free quarterly FICO-type score from Experian. To contrast, USAA has a better Bill Pay interface and EBPP; concordantly, I still use both institutions.
So it's perfectly legal to write out a check on an underage girl's chest, then take a photo of it and submit it? I need to know, 'cause I've got plenty of underage girls handy, but I'm running out of checks...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Although checks are something from the Stone Age in the Netherlands, one of its main banks, Rabobank, has not only been pushing account access from mobile phones. It has even become a mobile connectivity provider itself. And very soon, one will be able to pay by phone in a majority of the Dutch supermarkets. America seems to be lagging by about 12 months.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Seriously.
This is just a more mobile version of a scanner.
http://www.depositnow.com/check-scanners.html
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Exactly. A legal check is nothing more than a written order by the account holder to his bank, to pay a certain amount from his account to an identified person, with the stress upon "identified". It needs the account indentification ( a number, in our times), the account holder's name, and his signature. This goes back all the way to Antiquity, when checks travelled considerable distances through space and time, and were still cashed.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Slashdot will be offering a new service at the end of the year that will let users take a photo of an article summary and have it reposted within two days, making the smartphone one step closer to replacing editors.
We've been doing smartphone based banking over over 10 years now.. Nordea (Swedish/Finnish bank) launched mobile on-line banking service in January 2000. Granted, you didn't call handsets "smart phones" and they weren't as shiny as iPhone (Nokia 7110 for instance) and the service was (and is, I guess the service is still running) based on WAP instead of HTTP over TCP/IP but still it was smartphone based banking of the time. Source: Nordea Annual Report 2000, page 4. Personally, I've been doing all my personal daily banking needs (wire transfers, paying of bills, checking the balance and so on) using Nordea's online bank since 1997 (then called Merita). The site hasn't changed that much for over 10 years now except for minor layout face lifts and addition of services, and that's great. I've been using the same simple service meant for desktop browsers with phone browsers for many years. This stuff really shouldn't be very exiting..
I love my bank (USAA). They have been providing this for like 2+ years now.
On their online banking website they have an option to credit a check into your account with a scanner.
It downloads a Java app that controls your scanner directly.
Its so great. Even the money is in your account and usable immediately the check has been scanned in.
My bank is offering it to me for months!
But it’s not as if I were stupid enough to use it!
Needs a whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Here in Australia the ATO (Australian Tax Office) publishes it's own tax return submission software, E-Tax free of course for anyone holding an Australian tax number. This program is the only means to submit personal tax returns electronically, this is mostly for security reasons.
The bog standard paper TaxPak is still available and so are accountants, who will just use E-tax anyway.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The HTC Hero is brilliant, me and my hubby have both got one recently and are really pleased with it better than the iphone. Top Grade Acai
Cheques? and cellphones? In the same sentence? In the same century? You've got it wrong.
Dag B
Club made from silicon!
Seriously. Using a cellphone to fotograph a fscking check? And that's called "smartphone-based banking"? I've been able to do my banking over the internet for almost a decade now, and I'm a late adopter. And the last time I had to use a check was over twenty years ago.
Here in Australia the ATO (Australian Tax Office) publishes it's own tax return submission software, E-Tax free of course for anyone holding an Australian tax number. This program is the only means to submit personal tax returns electronically, this is mostly for security reasons.
You mean like freefile here in the states?
When it comes to banking, UK / US isn't much different. When people talk about Europe in the Banking world, they are talking about the bit connected with Asia.
Yes, I live in UK, but I still use my Norwegian bank account and debit card as it's cheaper than getting a British one.
This is blinging
If you're in the UK, a normal (non-business) bank customer and transferring anything more than a couple of thousand pounds to a foreign bank account,
I sent £2,500 last week online with hsbc, has to be sent between 09:00 and 15:30.
what is a check and why should I by using them?
By Tuntematon
I just wish....banks would pay closer attention to making their website more phone friendly before anything else.
That would go along way to making more accessible!
I heard that these same clever and inventive americans have already drawn up the plans for the next generation of this "system of the future" too! It allows you to use your mobile phone to make a video of yourself using a telegraph to compose a morse code message to the bank clerk. You then upload this video to YouTube from your mobile phone, where bank employees will stand by to decode and take your order. With their mobile phones of course, I mean, it is the 21st century after all, duh.