

Deposit checks by taking a photo . . . - aresant
http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_14455307

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dimarco
Why are we optimizing physical paper check cashing instead of streamlining
Consumer/Business to Consumer/Business fund transfers?

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InclinedPlane
The real answer to your question is that the system is highly regulated.
Paypal survives by being just enough of a hassle in terms of limitations and
fees to avoid being suitable as a 100% replacement for existing banking. And
nobody has the balls to do a ground-up rewrite of the way banking should work
in the modern age of ubiquitous telecommunications and computing. So instead
people work toward tweaking the existing systems just a little bit, because
that's safe and won't get you burned at the stake by the regulatory agencies.

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rue
Even after all these years in the U.S., I find amusement in technological
innovation for cheques.

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mos1
I'm amused that USAA has had deposit via scanner for about five years, and
it's still considered an innovation.

That said, american style bank accounts are obscenely silly legacy products. I
keep hoping the US will boldly jump into the 1990s and implement a saner
system.

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Tichy
What are checks needed for?

Was just thinking it would be easier to enable people to pay you directly via
their phone, instead of them having to write you a check.

Problems might be no phone connection, and no immediate verification of the
transfer (as typically banks take their time to process). But might be
solvable (also remembering that credit card reader for the iPhone).

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tjmc
How quaint. Meanwhile the rest of the civilized world will continue to use EFT
as they've done for the last decade.

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chaosmachine
It seems like it would be very easy to just photoshop in a new value, and
drain someone's account. Much easier than doctoring a physical check.

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patio11
You realize that all you need is the routing number and account number and you
can print a demand draft which looks nothing like the original, write
"AUTHORIZED BY ACCOUNT HOLDER" for the signature, and just deposit that demand
draft, right? No doctoring skills required, and the information needed to
drain the banking account is handily written on _every single check drawn on
it_.

Checks are among the least secure payment methods ever devised by man -- that
is why banks are trying to kill them. (The fact that banks subsidize them
instead of earning fat interchange fees on their usage doesn't hurt, either.)

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Poiesis
Incidentally, this is why Don Knuth stopped giving out checks. <http://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html>

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mos1
I have the USAA app, and it works quite well, but I've mostly reverted to
their java-based deposit-via-scanner application.

The problem is that with the USAA app, I've had two instances where something
was wrong with the picture and I was directed to deposit via mail instead.

