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.