As an avid mobile-banking user, I payparticular interest to discussions over when, and whether, feesshould be applied to the service. This has become especially truesince earlier this year, when I moved to a location where my bankhas no branch or ATM presence.
Being able to continue paying bills, check balances, receive directdeposit of paychecks, and even receive rent payments from tenantsliving in my house in Chicago have illustrated how, despite my moveto Massachusetts, my bank’s online/mobile banking service hashelped to make the transition relatively seamless.
Except when it comes to depositing checks. When I lived in Chicago,on the rare occasion I received a check, I usually used mysmartphone’s remote check deposit function, though sometimes I usedan ATM.
But since I’ve moved I’ve begun receiving more checks, primarilytravel-expense reimbursements for work. It didn’t take long for meto realize my bank limited how much I could deposit daily, andmonthly, using my phone. The smooth transition to branchless andATM-less banking suddenly hit a snag.
When I called my bank, a customer-service agent mentioned that Icouldn’t use my phone to deposit more than $2,000 per day or morethan $5,000 over a 30-day period. When I asked whether, as along-time customer in good standing and a heavy user of the bank’scredit card, I could have those limits increased so I wouldn’t haveto consider changing banks, the agent said it was bank policy andthere could be no exceptions.
That, to me, represents an issue that could have broadimplications, as I’m sure other customers are experiencing suchproblems. I understand the issue is risk, but there should be someflexibility built in to the mobile-deposit policy to accommodatecustomers in good standing.
Though I cringe at the thought (OK, I’m cheap, and I try to avoidfees at all cost–no pun intended), I’d even be willing to pay asmall fee for the convenience of not only being able to depositmore each month using my phone, but also of not having to figureout all of the biller information included in my online/mobilebanking service that I would need to re-enter when transitioning toa local bank, just for the convenience of depositing one or twochecks every other month or so using one of its ATMs.
Banks view online/ mobile banking services as helping to makecustomer relationships stickier, and that’s undoubtedly true, I nowknow. But how about some policy flexibility so customers don’t haveto hold on to checks and take them with them when traveling tolocations where their bank has ATMs, just to deposit them?