What are they thinking!?!?!?

A fellow scam fighter alerted me to an article this past week about a new feature in mobile banking.  Soon you will be able to take a photo of a check with your phone and then get that check deposited into your banking account.  My first thought was that the banks need to fix the problems and issues that they already have with check deposits before they create a whole new way for people to deposit their checks.

The article says

Banks have already offered smartphone applications that let customers check  balances, transfer funds and make payments.

Yes, they do.  I have even heard some banks say that they can send you an email to alert you when a check has cleared.  If you read this blog on a regular basis, you will know that I have a big problem with the banks using the term "cleared" to customers.  Our bank told us that our cashier's check was "cleared" and then one week later they called us to tell us that it was counterfeit.

Back to the article that I was talking about.  It goes on to explain how this new technology would work.

A bank customer takes a photo of the front of the check and  the back of the check that has been signed by the customer. The photo gets sent  to the bank through its mobile application. In most cases, funds are in the  customers account immediately.

Wait a minute . . . immediately!?!?!  So now if someone were to take a picture of a cashier's check, they could start using that money right away?  What about waiting for the check to be verified at a legitimate check?  What about protecting the banking customer's funds by holding the check until it has passed through the system?  Oh wait, they don't do that now with paper checks so why would they do it with electronic image checks.

Here is the ONLY positive side I could see about this.  There are some people that have taken a cashier's check that they wanted verified into the bank and have been arrested for presenting a counterfeit check.  With this technology they could send a picture of the check into the bank instead of actually going into a branch location.  Of course, if the check is found to be counterfeit the bank could probably send the police to the person's house to arrest them for trying to pass a counterfeit check.

More banks are expected to add the feature, especially as consumers demand 24  hour banking.

I would think that those same customers who are demanding 24 hour banking would also demand that the bank is looking out for their best interest.  How about giving us accurate information on when the money from a check is truly ours to use and spend without any worries?  How about telling the customer that the funds are available, but it could take 10 business days or more for the check to be verified as legitimate.  That is what this bank customer demands.