Do any of you use it?
Do you like it?
What commands do you use a lot?
What would you like to be able to do with it?
I’m asking because the company I work for is going to be offering this as an add on module to our credit union software by the end of this quarter. Today brought two of the three software services we’ve been building online and we are now sending txt messages and receiving dummy account information.
Just curious the level of interest here.
Version 1.0 we’re going to support the following:
Balances (all or specified account) (“Bal all” or “Bal <acct nickname>”
Last 4 transactions for a specified account (“hist CK1”)
Account nickname list (“accts”)
Commands list (“cmd”)
Transfers (“trans SAV1 CK1 100.00”)
In addition you can set it up to text you under the following conditions:
Low balance ($ amount specified by user)
Checks post
Deposits clear
Loan due (number of days before set by user)
Version 2 we’re going to be adding the ability to go more than 4 transactions back in history and possibly an ATM locator.
We debated about the usefulness of this module but several customers have asked for it. I’ve talked to enough people from the txting generation and they said they would pretty much never use home banking if this was an option at their bank.
It’s very fast. After sending “bal ck1” I had the balance returned in a txt within 3-4 seconds. So even if you have a smartphone and can log into the home banking site it makes the txt option attractive for quick account status updates.
We were wondering that, but two reasons why I think no.
Logging into an app will never be as fast as sending a few character txt message. Since the data being txt’d back and forth isn’t highly sensitive (you can see a balance, but not transfer it to another person’s account) there’s no logging in with txt banking. There’s the initial activation where you link your cell phone and we do some secure matching to make sure you’re signing up your own account, but after that the security is only that the incoming txt came from the number we have on file.
For some time to come there will be a large portion of the population not willing to pay for a big buck data plan and smartphone. Txt banking can be done with the dumbest of dumb phone.
To sign up you have to match last name of primary account holder, home phone and last 4 of SSN.
Once signed up you can really only view account balances and activity, nothing to do with account numbers. Worst case if I knew your cell number and knew that you had signed up with txt banking and had the know how to spoof caller ID on the SMS network I could transfer all the money out of your checking into your savings and possibly cause you to not sufficient funds your main account. That’s quite a bit of work for no financial gain to a hacker. Plus the majority of our credit unions would have your savings set up as an overdraft to your checking so our software would just move the funds back to clear the item anyway.
I think I’d much prefer mobile apps to texting. It’s like using a GUI over command line/terminal. I prefer the ease of actual buttons, a nice user interface. I still however only prefer to do banking at home on my own machine. It’s safer and more convenient. This however is definitely pretty cool and useful though.
Honestly, a simple way to check the balance of an account and also an alert if the account drops under x amount of dollars or a transaction over x amount of dollars happens is all I ever hear people use.
I wouldn’t ever use it. I get my account balances emailed to me each morning. I have my CC send me a text when they go over a set amount. I don’t need anything else really…
Anyone that would be sketched out probably needs a bigger tinfoil hat anyway.
It is a one way communication. Most offer this kind of notification, if not by text already, then by email. I think its always good to have the option. It isn’t like you are implying this is some new gravy train of banking… just something you’re adding.
Uh, seems like you would use it seeing as you get text alerts and already check account balances. He wasn’t asking if you’d change to it.
I use this for M&T, way quicker than logging into my account via app. Just txt Balance to whatever number they gave me and boom, there’s my available balance in 2 seconds.
I mean I wouldn’t use it for my bank accounts really. Doesn’t everyone have a credit card that gives cash back and just use that? Why use a debit card when you can get 1-5% cash back with a CC? I wouldn’t mind an automated text every morning with my balances I suppose over an email.
Hmmm. Whats funny is I was thinking on Sat that this would be a great idea if they tried something like this. That way you could always have it there up to date… Also send you a text alert every time a purchase or withdrawl was made, so you always had constant balance information