My bank just released their mobile banking app for iPhones. I excitedly download it, looking forward to seeing my balance and paying my bills on my phone!
Except, upon logging in…I have suddenly acquired 10x the money I knew I had. And a credit card balance that was way too high. Freaking out, I check the transaction history, and there’s payments to utility companies from another province. And I realize that no, my account has not been compromised, but some other dude could have had his entire account wiped out if I hadn’t called the bank and reported this significant security flaw.
Whoever you are, man, I someday aspire to have paychecks as high as yours. And I’m sorry I looked at your transaction history to figure if my account had been hijacked.
My bank here in the US offers mobile banking, and I don’t see the point. I suppose that if you’re traveling a lot, it might make sense, but I have access to my home computer every evening. How often do I need to check my balance? And I only have like four bills to pay each month, so it’s not like something I need to do on the go.
My university friends who are scraping by pennies at a time quite often check their bank accounts to see if they can afford to go out for supper - being able to do this on their phones instead of needing a computer would help out a lot.
When I need to do this I call the number on the back of my ATM card and get my account balance. I know it only gives you the balance at the close of business yesterday, but you can do the math from there.
I have a Chase account, and yet no Chase ATM located conveniently to my house. So I have to admit liking the “take a photo of your check” method of deposit. I don’t use the app very much, though.
I’d be concerned that if you saw someone else’s account, who see’s yours and can be transacting against it via mobile banking. Your bank has a serious security problem!
As for mobile banking, I love it. I do most my banking online from home but my bank’s mobile banking application (iPhone) is fantastic and I use it regularly.
[ul]
[li]On a business trip and received an email notifying an electronic statement is available? No problem, log on and pay it.[/li][li]Just busted my bank-roll at craps in Vegas? No problem, log on and move money from savings while walking over to the ATM. [/li][li]Received a check to cover a friend’s portion of a weekend get-away? No problem, log on and snap a photo of the front/back via remote capture and the funds are memo-posted to my available balance immediately and the check is processed within 24 hours.[/li][li]Want to send a friend some cash? No problem, log on and send a P2P payment to their email address or mobile phone number.[/li][li]Need to move money between the account at this bank to an account I have at another bank? No problem, log on and perform an inter-bank transfer.[/li][/ul]
Well, you get the point I suppose. Although I am usually serviced just fine by online banking, having the mobility to perform the same (or more) types of transactions while on the go is a great thing. With the latest addition of remote capture, I think my only interaction with my bank outside of the online/mobile world is the ATM and well… my bank’s ATM offering is pretty nice as well.
Disclaimer: I work in banking for a software company that provides online and mobile banking applications.