USAA allows you to deposit checks using iPhone's camera and app

A privately held bank, USAA, offers an iPhone app that will allow you to use your touchscreen phone to deposit checks. While other banks offer mundane services like deposit totals, activity in the account or transfer funds, this financial services company will allow you to deposit a check using the iPhone's camera. Snap a picture of both sides of the check, properly endorsed of course, send it over to the bank and the deposit will be made.

“We’re essentially taking an image of the check, and once you hitthe send button, that image is going into our deposit-taking system asany other check would,” said Wayne Peacock, a USAA executive vicepresident. Because the whole process is done electronically, to protect against fraud the customer must be eligible for credit and must have some form of insurance from USAA.

This is not a New York money center bank if you're wondering about it. Ranking just under the top 20 banks in the U.S., USAA has just one branch (and that is in San Antonio) and deals with mostly military personnel, although many of its products are open to anyone. While it might not be feasible for you to become a USAA customer, this still gives you a good idea of the direction we are heading into with today's feature loaded smartphones and fierce competition amongst banks to hold your assets. And while the app currently is for iPhone users only, USAA plans on expanding it for use on other smartphones in the future.

source: NYTIMES via Phonedog