Bank of America has (finally) begun offering a check deposit feature on its mobile banking app for smartphones and tablets. The addition gave me the push I needed to try mobile banking on my new iPhone. So I tested it, with varying results.
Bank of America recently introduced the deposit feature with little fanfare. Citibank and Chase already offer “remote deposit capture,†as it's called, and some smaller banks, like USAA, have been offering it for even longer.
I easily downloaded the bank's free mobile banking app onto my iPhone and logged in using my online banking credentials. You have to be an online banking customer to use the mobile banking app. Because I was using a new phone, I also had to answer additional security questions to verify my identity the first time I used the app.
Once the app opened, I clicked on the “deposits†tab. The app directed me to take two photos: one of the front of the check and a second of the back of the check (which must be endorsed “for deposit only.â€) It instructed me to place the check in a well-lit area, to make sure the image was within the square frame provided as a guide and to snap the image from above.
This step took me a couple of tries with the first check, a computer-printed version. The app rejected my first two attempts as too blurry. But I moved to an area with better lighting (my kitchen, if you must know), and the third time worked. I then chose an account to deposit the funds into, typed in the amount and clicked “deposit.†Pretty easy, and I didn't have to get in my car and drive to a branch.
The second check, however, a hand-written personal check sent b y a relative as a gift for my daughter's birthday, was a different story. Despite taking and retaking the image numerous times, in different lighting and from varying heights, I got the same error message: “The image is blurry. Please retake a clear photo.â€
I called customer service, and a bank representative said he wasn't aware of any issues with deposits of personal checks. He suggested uninstalling, then reinstalling, the app, and trying again later. If that didn't work, he suggested there might be a problem with my phone's camera, so I should contact Apple to see if they had any ideas about solving the blurriness problem.
I called my cellular provider (Verizon), which sold me the phone less than two weeks ago. The first customer service representative - after first saying, not entirely as a joke, that I simply deposit it the old-fashioned way - gamely walked me through uninstalling and reinstalling the app, That didn't help. The representative then refer red me to someone else, who had me snap a photo and text it to myself to check the image quality. It looked clear to me. But the app still wouldn't accept the check images.
Verizon connected me to an Apple representative, who verified that I had properly updated software before suggesting that I remove the phone's protective case, in case it was interfering with the auto-focus feature. She also advised tapping on the image, to help focus before snapping the shutter. Neither step helped.
I gave Bank of America a second call, and the representative I spoke with suggested that the image of the hand-written check might not be clear enough for the app to accept. (Sometimes, she noted, A.T.M.'s can't read such checks either, and you must type in certain information to deposit them by machine.) Did I perhaps have a second, type-written check to deposit to test that theory?
Turns out, I did. (This problem of stockpiling paper checks, for a rare visit to a branch, i s one reason I was eager to try the app.) That one was accepted for deposit without a problem.
A Bank of America spokeswoman said that while there might occasionally be a problem with an individual check, “by and large, feedback has been positive†for the new feature. Indeed, I was able to deposit a second, hand-written personal check later in the day, after tapping on the phone's screen before snapping the image, as the Apple rep suggested. So I guess the first personal check was just a dud, and I'll have to deposit it the traditional way.
At any rate, I successfully deposited three of four checks from the comfort of my home. The app instructed me to keep the checks for 14 days - in case they were needed for verification - and then destroy them. This means you must keep track of the paper for a little while. I'm not the most organized person, so I made a note on the checks, in pencil, that I had already deposited them. (Photos of the checks aren't stored on your phone, in case you were wondering.)
Funds deposited by the mobile app show up immediately on your account, but aren't available for withdrawal until the next day. There's a limit on the funds you can deposit each month using the mobile check app. I was curious to know more about the deposit limits and how they're set, but was unable to find details on the bank's Web site. The site directed me to the “terms and conditions†for details, but I searched in vain for the document.
I called and spoke to yet another customer service representative (As an aside, all the customer service people I spoke with about the problem were sympathetic, courteous and willing to try to help), who agreed that that the information was, in fact, unavailable on the Web site. “It's not just you,†he said. But the bank would be remedying that as soon as possible, he said. The monthly deposit limit varies, he explained, depending on the type of account you have and the length of time you've been a customer of the bank, but is generally $5,000 for most customers.
Have you tried out Bank of America's mobile deposit feature? How did it work for you?
