Mobile Banking To The Rescue

So, I was headed home from work this evening and decided to stop at a local restaurant for some takeout.  After placing my order, I then paid with my handy-dandy First Federal debit card.  After receiving my food, I headed on home to enjoy my meal.

When I settled in to eat my dinner, I checked my phone to see what alerts came in from mobile banking.  I saw two debit alerts, one that matched a purchase I made earlier, and one that didn’t look familiar.  It seems that what I thought I paid for my meal was not matching the alert I received.

I then logged onto online banking and saw the debit description for the restaurant.  It seems that the cashier added a dollar tip that I didn’t remember giving.

I guess he didn’t know that: #1 I get SMS alerts on my debit card and #2 I work for the bank.  Tomorrow morning, they will most likely lose out on the transaction altogether.

So what have we learned?  SMS alerts can help protect you against fraudulent charges; and small business owners may want to be a little more honest with all this technology in consumers’ hands.

Update

The restaurant adjusted their credit charges at the end of night.  So I ended up being charged the correct amount.

Photo by Skokie

BarCamp In Charleston

This past weekend I attended the first BarCampCharleston.  I must say, this event was as fun and enlightening as I thought it would be.  Thanks to all that put the event together.  And special thanks to the Lowcountry Innovation Center for hosting the event.  If I ever do a startup, I’ll be looking there for space.

One thing I discovered was, it really sucks that you can’t be in two places at once.  While I enjoyed all the sessions I attended, I regret missing a couple of the other cool ones.  I think my high school drum skills would have helped me in the Rock Band Challenge. Also, there were a few times that  I thought, “what the @*&% are they talking about?”  I really need to do a lot of tech reading in my spare time.  Apparently, there is a lot I need to learn about Github and Amazon Web Services.

In another session, I finally got to see how @jaredwsmith does his weather tracking magic.  Who knew there were so many free tools to track weather?  Also, thanks goes to @bank_daddy for sending the Google Wave invite.  Now I feel like a hip techie.

BaconCamp, the last session I attended, was a bacon lover’s dream.  Ted, from Ted’s Butcher Block brought in a couple hundred samples of bacon.  Let me tell you, that stuff you get at your local grocery store does not compare.  I still have applewood bacon flashbacks.

Now that I’ve attended a BarCamp, I can really see the need for BarCampBank.  I don’t know if we can get 130+ attendees, but I’d sure like to try.  So what do you think, BarCampBankCharleston in February 2010?

First Federal Launches Mobile Banking

First Federal has now launched Mobile Banking for its customers.  I have to say, I am really excited about this new service.  While I was skeptical about the benefits of the service a couple of years ago, I have to admit that having my bank in my pocket is great.

Being a lead on the project was a lot of fun.  After looking at most of the vendors in the market, we finally decided on ClairMail.  We felt that text alerts was a very crucial piece to mobile banking and ClairMail fit our needs nicely.  One added bonus is that we are the first bank/credit union to offer mobile banking without requiring the customer to be an online banking user.

I believe this will allow the bank to tap even more potential users that may not necessarily want to use online banking.  Customers can use text messaging and/or mobile web for mobile banking.  Some of the features that are currently available are daily balance alerts, deposit/withdrawal alerts and transfers.  There is also a stylized iPhone version.  If you are a First Federal customer, you can register for mobile banking here.  Some screen shots are listed below.

Those @$#% Bank Fees

Ok, who didn’t see this one coming?  The government is currently reviewing the whole overdraft policy that banks and credit unions have been enjoying over the years.  Consistent complaining and the current state of the economy have driven the issue to the forefront.

From a consumer standpoint, I wholeheartedly agree that the fees are a bit excessive.  But what gets my goat is charging me for transferring money from my secondary account to cover the overdraft.

While banks and credit unions made $24 billion last year in overdraft fees, I’d bet they waived at least that much, if not more.  I always felt that if they were more consumer friendly, they’d probably make more in fees.

So here’s my suggestion on what the industry can do to be more “caring” and keep a majority of that generated overdraft fee income.

1. Process all deposits to accounts first
2. Process check items, bill pays and card purchases in the order they are received OR from smallest to largest
3. If there is an overdraft, allow the draft to come from another checking, savings or ACR/LOC account, penalty free
4. If there is no account set up, or the draft account is used up, charge 10-25% of the amount per item, with a cap of $35 per item.

Now I haven’t seen any industry statistics, but from what I’ve seen here, most items that cause an overdraft are for less than $100.  Charging $2.50 for a $10 bounced check will get you a lot less calls and irate customers than charging $35.  Also, most people won’t even argue over a 10-25% fee.  They will probably look at it as a foreign ATM charge, a convenience fee.

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Buy ‘Em

The big news today was Mint.com being bought by Intuit.  My guess is Intuit was worried about this new upstart that had astronomical growth in an area they assumed they had on lock.  It makes you wonder whether the threatening letter Intuit sent to Mint was just a way to gauge Mint’s success.

I see this as a great move by Intuit.  FinanceWorks is, well, not as good as the other web PFMs that are available.  A year ago, Mint, Wesabe and Jwaala all had features that I don’t think FinanceWorks has to this day.  From what I’ve seen in my usage, Mint really gets the whole web PFM space.  With Intuit, I see the small business demographic really being helped.

Pay Now Or Pay Later

A court has allowed a suit to be brought against a bank for lax security with their online banking.  I guess one could say it was only a matter of time.  As financial institutions keep encouraging their customers to use electronic channels, security has to be a top priority.  There have been more than enough security breaches in the credit card industry to serve as a warning.  Software glitches, such as the one suffered by Rudder, hasn’t helped either.

Customers want to feel that their money is safe, which is a primary reason that people use banks.  With online banking, bill pay and PFM usage growing, lax security is not something the financial industry needs.  In some cases I’ve read, lower levels of security seems to be a choice because of the associated costs.  Everything sounds expensive until you have that first major breach.

With Citizens Financial, I don’t know whether their online banking vendor didn’t have a more secure option, or they chose to not  add a more secure service.  If they chose a less secure option because of cost, I bet that choice looks a lot less expensive now.  If their vendor didn’t offer a more secure option, I imagine that will come to light very quickly.

Hopefully, FIs have come to the conclusion that security is just included in the cost of doing business.  If they decide to roll the die and take a chance, the odds are some hacker will find out about it.  This is even more so for smaller FIs because they don’t have the resources.

With mobile payments on the horizon, security is something that can’t be skimped on.  A little more customer confidence in the industry wouldn’t hurt either.

Picture from The Lockhorns

Missed Opportunity

Last week Best Buy inadvertently began selling flat panel TVs online for $9.99.  The Internet lit up with news of the “too good to be true” offer.  After correcting the price online, Best Buy said that they would not honor the purchases.

Best Buy isn’t the first company that this has happened to, and I’m sure they won’t be the last.  However, they missed out on a wonderful marketing opportunity.

Imagine if Best Buy, or another company, offered easter egg products on their website.  This would help drive even more traffic to their sites and help increase sales for other products.  It wouldn’t have to be something they did every month.  By keeping the timing and products random, it would help the customers go deeper into the website and hunt for those bargains.

It would have been so much better if Best Buy had instead announced that the first 100 TVs that were sold at $9.99 would be honored. And please keep checking the website for more special bargains.

Did You Miss Me?

Sheesh. Who knew that it’d been so long since I’d written a post? Now that our conversion is just about over, I plan to get back to it. Stay tuned. Same Kismet time. Same Kismet channel.

Number 22

As you all know, Friday has become known as Bank Failure Friday.  While I was getting ready to leave for the weekend, I got the news that my employer, First Federal, had acquired Cape Fear Bank of Wilmington, NC.

Over the coming weeks, I’m sure that we will be in a controlled state of chaos, putting these two bank systems together.  While I am sad that circumstances forced the closure of Cape Fear Bank, I am excited to be working with a new group of coworkers.

Hopefully this transition will go smoothly and we can grow and become an even better bank.  So, to the Cape Fear Bank family, I say, “Welcome to First Federal”.

First Federal on Social Media, Part Deux

First Federal has now added their social media links to their Contact Us Page.  So far, the Twitter account has mostly been used to announce workshops that the bank has sponsored.

First Federal Contact Us

Here are the links to their sites:

Twitter: @firstfederal

Facebook: First Federal FB

YouTube: First Federal Online