Soon customers of the USAA bank in the United States will be permitted to deposit cheques using their iPhones.
Several banks, including Australia’s Commonwealth Bank, already have iPhone apps that support online banking, but the USAA app will be the first to allow deposits via the iPhone.
Within the application, users photograph the back and front of a cheque using the iPhone’s camera. The photograph is then sent to the bank, while the user can keep the paper cheque.
The app will also point users in the direction of the nearest ATM, locate the nearest car rental service and even “record accident details to help you file a claim”.
Using the iPhone’s camera application to send cheque deposits may open the bank up to fraud attempts by users with photo editing programs. So far, it has made no announcement on whether it expects this to be a problem.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
