This comes from USAA bank and unless someone else knows of another, is the only one anywhere to provide it. You know criminals are working overtime to figure out a way around whatever safeguards are designed in to system.
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A little social engineering should be able to get one membership.
Once you have this, you should be able to hack this system pronto.
This is so lame, it’s not funny.
Maybe the next thing they are going to do is have you scan money in and it will be made a cash deposit!
I’ve used this frequently – deposited all my holiday checks!
It works like a charm.
One check I deposited was rejected – and that was because of a comment in the memo field of the check overflowed to the routing number that is right under it. (The flowery P’s and Y’s in “Happy” flowed low!)
So my take is that it verifies the routing number and account number in the scan – it takes about 10 seconds for it to accept the scan as valid – and treats it just like an ACH transaction.
Seems relatively secure it me…
#2: Getting in to USAA is like cracking into the vault at Fort Knox; forget about it if you don’t qualify.
I used the new scan feature a few days ago for a check; since I run Ubuntu Linux, it didn’t work (even after I changed my FireFox browsing identification), but I ran Windows XP in VMWare and it worked like a charm.
I would love this! My bank is a credit union based in California and while I can make deposits to any Co-OP ATM this would be much nicer!
I work at a bank as a loan officer. This is the wave of the future. Banks like it because it saves them from having tellers. In 10 years you will see them everywhere.
I don’t mind if criminals try to deposit checks into my account. It’s when they try to withdraw money that I have a problem.
Not that anybody is taking count, but put me in the “unsatisfied USAA customer” category.
DepositNow!
https://www.depositnow.com/depositnow/default
Satisfied USAA member for 15 years now! Consumer Reports rates them tops as an insurance company as well.
Also, they push the technology envelope and always have for the bank as they have only one location in San Antonio and they serve the military! Only makes sense…
I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and it is great. The interface is kind of wonky (it utilizes your scanner driver but not the scanner program), and getting the check lined up correctly takes a bit of getting used to (oh, and it doesn’t work on a Mac yet; I had to use Boot Camp (the scanner driver crashed Parallels) and Win XP. It would be great if they let you simply copy/paste/crop/rotate from a .jpg scan or (possibly even better) a digipic of the check. That would make it even easier.
Bottom line: USAA doesn’t have many (any?) branches, and mailing checks got to be a pain, even though they cleared quickly (and were sent in pre-paid envelopes). This makes it even easier than dealing with a traditional bank. Oh, and by the way, USAA also pays you back for ATM charges…
-Chris
This would work okay for small checks like the ones Grandma sends you for Christmas or battery rebate checks. Don’t try any personal checks for large amounts, or anything over a couple thousand dollars unless you are Donald Trump.
I had a 13 year sentance er, ah, I mean career in retail banking. You have to realize that a bad deposit is just the same as a bad check. The money comes out of the account (or is taken as a loss) on either. Forgeries are pretty straightfoward and are dealt with quickely, but IIRC, a check with bad endorcements can come back 7 years later!
I just can’t wait for some bad scans to start really screwing this up. News at 10!
DAve
I’m surprised USAA came out with this (seemingly) first…that is not usually like them (still tied to phone and snail-mail for many things), though their online banking does have some nifty features (though it is oversimplified to an extreme).
I will also say this for those who don’t know…USAA is, by far, the BEST company in America for customer service, period. You get a live person in seconds, they go out of their way to assist you, they CALL YOU BACK if they say they are going to…even if only to give a status update. I am constantly amazed at the level of service one receives from them (which is really, really sad in itself…it should be an expectation, not a delight, to be treated like this).
Pity my kids will never be able to use them, unless they go into the service (by that time, this regime’ll probably have the draft in place).
Anyway, this seems neat, and will work nicely with their web based banking and bill paying (which lets you use other accounts outside of USAA, in addition to your accounts with them).
I love USAA… not for scanning checks but because you can use any ATM in the world and they’ll reimburse the ATM fees up to $15 a month per account!
this looks like a bad idea
Have to heartily agree with #14. I used a lot of banks while I was Active Duty, and always got treated like a pariah. When you’re not putting in thousands of dollars a month, like most military families don’t, most banks don’t want to be bothered with you.
USAA has always bent over backwards to provide excellent customer support. Want to open a new account or get a new life insurance policy? Fill out a web form, get a call from someone with a really nice Texas accent, and exchange faxed authorization forms. That’s it.
I used to use their Quickpost service a lot. You’d fill out a deposit slip, sign your checks, and drop them off at a UPS store. Money would be credited to your account within 24 hours. They stopped doing that in December. Guess this is what they’re replacing that with.
Too bad it doesn’t work with Mac’s yet. Once it does, I’ll give this a try.