Bank Intros Deposit-Check Feature with iPhone App

USAA, a privately held bank and insurance company, has updated its iPhone application this week to introduce a check deposit feature. Using the app, customers can simply take a snapshot of both sides of a check. USAA claims that by using this method the process of depositing a check is done completely electronically.

“We’re essentially taking an image of the check, and once you hit the send button, that image is going into our deposit-taking system as any other check would,” said Wayne Peacock, a USAA executive vice president, according to The New York Times. Customers don’t have to mail the check to the bank later, as the deposit is handled entirely electronically. USAA suggests voiding the check and filing /discarding it.

With just one branch located in San Antonio, USAA has been aggressively developing an anytime, anywhere banking strategy, the NY Times report says. The company introduced the option of depositing a check from home using a scanner around three years ago, a move that laid the foundation for the USAA iPhone app.

“Mobile is going to be a bigger part of how people do commerce and how they interact with their financial institutions,” Mr. Peacock said. “The great value that we see is the time savings.”

An analyst cited in the report says “USAA has been pretty progressive with this.” Nick Holland, a senior analyst with Aite Group, a financial services research company, added that tighter budgets forced banks to focus on using technology in order to cut costs, or even make profits. “If banks can get people to stop calling call centers for mundane inquiries and instead send a text message,” he said, “that saves a bank about $14 for every one of those inquiries.”

The USAA iPhone app is immediately available on the iTunes App Store. Supporting iPhone OS 3.0, the app is free to download and use on any iPhone / iPod touch model. However, only customers who are eligible for credit and insurance through USAA can use the deposit feature.