US Banks To Test ATMs Which Accept Your Smartphone Instead Of Cards (ibtimes.co.uk)

Dozens of banks in the US are updating their ATMs, or installing new ones, in order to allow customers to withdraw cash without using bank cards. A new cardless system will be rolled out at around 2,000 cash machines across the US, operated by at least 28 banks, including giants like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase. Under the new system, people can order cash on an app on their phone, and then scan a code at the ATM to receive their money, all without inserting a card or entering a PIN. The developers of the system insist that smartphone technology makes for faster and more secure transactions. More banks are expected to adopt the technology soon.

Comments

Sounds a bit sketchy...

[Frosty Piss]

I'm not really technically competent to make a valid argument against this, but my "gut" says... No! Maybe I'm just an ignorant Luddite that longs for my black rotary phone, but my uneducated imagination flows over with ideas and visions of how wrong this could go. My new ATM card has a chip, I'll stick with that for the time being.

Re:Sounds a bit sketchy...

[TapeCutter]

Many people in poor nations do not have access to banking facilities but they do have a mobile phone. Paying for things via your phone (as opposed to a card) is the normal way of doing business for a large chunk of the world's population.

Re:Sounds a bit sketchy...

[rtb61]

So basically, you give up your wallet and the threat of being mugged for the cash in your wallet for, hmmmm, for log in access to your phone banking account and transfer money or else and what happens after money transferred, how to keep you silent, hmmm, let me think. Yeah, nah, fuck off with the crazy idea of carrying around my bank account with my life being the guarantee of handing over the password and my life being in the balance when it comes to my not complaining about the illegal access to my account. Sure steal my cash, steal my credit card but stealing access to my bank account, that's real risky business. I'm thinking a T-Shirt, "My phone is not, absolutely not, linked to my bank account, please point your gun at the next available auto-teller". Swapping your phone for the ATM where you become an ATM.

Re:Sounds a bit sketchy...

[Martin Blank]

The phones are cheap, plans are prepaid (and cheap), it's safer than carrying cash, and the mobile networks are ubiquitous. While the US has only recently been getting on board with transferring money by phones, much of Africa has been doing it for years.

Example: A Samsung Note 2 (not the latest and greatest, but still a decent phone) from Jumia Kenya is 550 Kenyan shillings. According to xe.com, that's about US$5.39, based on an exchange rate of about 102 Ksh to the US dollar.

Being poor doesn't mean being disconnected. Poverty hasn't been a barrier to mobile phone use in other parts of the world for many years. Even in Afghanistan, cell phone towers are common even in the remote regions, because they get used.

Re:Sounds a bit sketchy...

[ShanghaiBill]

And those same poor people have money for a smart phone how exactly?

By working and getting paid for it. In much of Africa, you can buy a phone capable of financial transactions for less than $20 new, and less than $5 used. It is considered important enough that most households will buy a cellphone before they buy a TV or refrigerator.

It's the same as a credit card

You cannot use a credit card for peer-to-peer transactions, and a CC is much harder for a poor person to get than a cellphone.

while having dependency on some type of connectivity for the Cell.

You must be an American. In much of the rest of the world, cell coverage is ubiquitous.

Cardless cash

[well_in_theory]

A version of this is already widely in use in Australia. Log into bank via smartphone, request amount of cash, receive code. Go to that bank's ATM, request cardless cash, enter code, ???, cash! I no longer carry a wallet, just my smartphone with 3-card slimline case containing my ID/drivers licence, public transport RFID card, and credit card. I'm able to slip a $20 in there too for the few remaining places who either don't take credit or charge a fee to do so.

Re:Cardless cash

[Grishnakh]

I hate to break it to you, but it's not hard for a mugger to get your fingerprint. All they need is a knife....

This is a game of pass the buck.

[kuzb]

Now it won't be their system which is insecure, it'll be your phone. This gives them another layer of defense against their often laughably bad security.