Mobile banking is expected to really take off, and one of the leaders in that sector is a privately held company named United Services Automobile Association (USAA), which will launch an iPhone application which will allow users to deposit their checks directly via their iPhone.
The practicals of it are you can take a photograph of each side of your check and them transfer the images which result in a deposit being made.
This isn’t the first time USAA has tapped the iPhone to experiment with financial innovations, as just in May they rolled out services which allow users to locate the nearest ATM, transfer money and check the balances of their bank account, among other things.
Another interesting aside to it is you don’t need to do anything with your check once you’ve scanned it other than being encouraged by USAA to void it and keep it for your records. That’s similar to what financial institutions in the past have done where they voided it and sent it back to the consumer to store.
One of the safety features included with the application to help prevent potential fraud, is the customer must have the ability to get a credit account with USAA or have an insurance policy with them.
The obvious question is whether this is going to extend to other phone models and brands. According to the bank’s blog, they have future plans to do that, but there are no details other than those general comments.
While all of this does sound great, it does make me thing of how many people would take a check and copy and transmit it in public. After all, since it can already be scanned and transferred via your home computer, it would be when you’re out that this would have added value.
Maybe it’ll catch on as a substitute to home computer scanning, as taking a couple of quick pictures on your iPhone and sending it off is a quicker process. But is that enough to make this a killer app?
