Most small business owners agree that, while checks are probably the least preferred method to accept payment in, since cashing them requires a trip to your banks home branch, they still end up accepting them a large percentage of the time.  And some of us still receive a pay “check”.

A Texas-based USAA bank has created “Deposit@Mobile” service, a new banking app for your iPhone that lets customers make deposits using their iPhone.  Putting an end to those time-consuming bank visits, (my bank is a 1 hour trip there and back – hour & ten with my Tim’s).

Having a one branch bank develop such idea may seem odd or unlikely but the majority of USAA customers are military and deployed through the world.  Three years ago they adapted a policy of depositing a check from your home PC using a scanner. This lead to the phone deposits initiative.  We are hoping here that, it will lead to a larger initiative from our banks.

All the magic happens in the iPhones camera – you simply take a picture of both sides of the check, hit the send button, and voila! – it goes directly into USAA deposit-taking system and directly into your account.  The deposit will all be handled electronically, the checks will not have to be mailed to the bank, they do suggest voiding the check and filing or discarding it.  For security reasons this feature will only be available to those who qualify.  USAA currently has about 60% of its client base who are qualified.

Source: bnet