Remote Deposit Capture

[MikeD]

I am just getting into paying bills online, either with a credit card or by "Bill Pay" from BoA. My main goal is to save on postage. My wife does all the bills by check and postal mail now. She will still approve them and I will do the actual paying online.

I have found out about scanning in checks with a scanner and doing deposits from home. This would save me about 10 trips to the bank per year. I am mostly interested because I think it's cool. I guess I would still have to go to town for the free notary services...

Does anyone here know which banks support this kind of remote deposit? I have googled it and apparently it's only supported for businesses except for USAA. I don't think I qualify to join USAA as I read the web page.

Are there any other ways to become a USAA member other than being in the service or related to a member? I am in the Navy FCU but by a fluke.

Thanks,
Mike D.

[Nords]

Originally Posted by MikeD

Are there any other ways to become a USAA member other than being in the service or related to a member? I am in the Navy FCU but by a fluke.

You could work through the membership qualification/questionnaires on their websites or call them both and ask if NFCU could somehow get you in.

https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/...er_eligibility

If NFCU did remote deposit I'd never set foot near their offices or ATMs again.

[LOL!]

Are you too afraid to mail in deposits? I've been depositing checks by mail since 1973 without problems. I've always had free postage-paid envelopes from any bank I have ever used.

[pedorrero]

Although mailing is reliable, you might want to make a scanned image or photocopy of checks that you mail. Or at least, the payor, the date, amount, etc. In the unlikely but possible case of lost mail*, you could ask the payor to issue you another check.

*Delivery of first class mail is NOT guaranteed, or so I was once told.

[OAG]

PENFED ($20 will get you lifetime membership, if not otherwise eligible) has a program (I think you have to ask for it although they actually offered it to me about a year ago) where you go on line and just tell them the checks you are going to mail in. The money is instantly available to you for your use - the actual checks have to get there in something like 8 days via USPS, they even send you labels, or you can print them yourself. However, IMHO paying bills via ACH "Pulls" is much better than ACH "Push" or "bill payer" programs. ACH Pulls will post the payment of the bill much quicker and as long as the money is in the account you are done (lets you cut the "time to pay" period to the absolute minimum). At most financial institutions they have some kind or FREE "bill payer" provision, of course, some of them like to "charge" for the service. Also look into the people you have to pay as some of them will even charge the payment to a Credit Card (USAA and Time Warner are a couple that will allow the payment of bills via Credit Card); just be sure to read the fine print for any "fees" to charge a Credit Card as the fee can quickly negate any "Points or Cash Back" advantages to the Credit Card Payment.

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by LOL!

Are you too afraid to mail in deposits? I've been depositing checks by mail since 1973 without problems. I've always had free postage-paid envelopes from any bank I have ever used.

I'm just interested in it for the coolness factor. I am, after all, kinda geeky.

Mike D.

[wildcat]

Goldleaf is big in that area. You could probably get a list of their customers:

Goldleaf Financial Solutions, Inc. - Products>Check Processing&Imaging

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by Nords

If NFCU did remote deposit I'd never set foot near their offices or ATMs again.

Your dreams may be coming true later this year. I emailed Navy FCU about remote deposits and this is part of their reply:

"Thank you for using Navy Federal Online. Navy Federal is currently exploring several remote deposit capture options to find one that will best suit the needs of our membership. Our plan is to have this service in place later this year, and we will advertise this service to our membership once it is available."

I am very hopeful.

Mike D.

[LOL!]

I wonder if using snail mail will become cool in a retro sort-of nostalgic way.

[dex]

Originally Posted by LOL!

I wonder if using snail mail will become cool in a retro sort-of nostalgic way.

I think it will have a comeback in the future. Think about what it has going for it.
The writer has to put more into the process
Think of what to say
print it out
put it in an envelop
put on a stamp
put it in the mail

The receiver get to
wait for the letter
open up the envelop
hold a piece of paper
think about what has been written.

Letter writting will show a real concern for the receiver and the subject.

[whitestick]

Originally Posted by R Wood

However, IMHO paying bills via ACH "Pulls" is much better than ACH "Push" or "bill payer" programs. ACH Pulls will post the payment of the bill much quicker and as long as the money is in the account you are done

This is a timely quote, as I have been considering a similar change, however, harkening back to the days of paper budgets and registers - How do you plan for enough money to be in the account to support the ACH Pulls? Do you just keep a large sum of extra money, or is there some sort of online tracking program that is provided to set up a monthly budget with additional planned expenses so you can ensure having enough money in the account to cover the Pulls for the month. I'm thinking that if you set up your electric provider/cable provider/etc and you know that you will incur larger bills due to higher usage of the service that month, then you could make an entry in your budget to plan for enough money in the account, and then when the ACH actually occurs, hopefully it will post to that online register, so you reconcile and plan for next months needed funds.
Ever heard of, or know which banks might be offering such a service?

[OAG]

Originally Posted by whitestick

This is a timely quote, as I have been considering a similar change, however, harkening back to the days of paper budgets and registers - How do you plan for enough money to be in the account to support the ACH Pulls? Do you just keep a large sum of extra money, or is there some sort of online tracking program that is provided to set up a monthly budget with additional planned expenses so you can ensure having enough money in the account to cover the Pulls for the month. I'm thinking that if you set up your electric provider/cable provider/etc and you know that you will incur larger bills due to higher usage of the service that month, then you could make an entry in your budget to plan for enough money in the account, and then when the ACH actually occurs, hopefully it will post to that online register, so you reconcile and plan for next months needed funds.
Ever heard of, or know which banks might be offering such a service?

I use money to track all expenses. I keep money at the Institution where the "pull" will come from, usually in a MMSA, and then prior to the effective date of the payment just transfer from the MMSA to the checking account usually on a monthly basis so as to not exceed the limit on MMSA transfers allowed. I usually have a pretty good handle on how much will be needed for the month. Additionally I basically live off a CC for most other expenses and pay it off monthly automatically in the same manner.

[whitestick]

Originally Posted by R Wood

I usually have a pretty good handle on how much will be needed for the month.

That's the part that I was trying to get at. Don't like to depend on memory of what I did the night before when I was out sampling the local winery and made a "small" purchase to take home. Prefer to have a place to enter near real time as I incur and then it's a simple addition to know how much to transfer to the checking. Even the CC will vary somewhat, so if I could capture or estimate for that as well, then I would have enough to allow it to Pull it's ACH payment as well. And as I get older, I have a feeling that my memory may not improve, thus the need to capture as I incur the expenses. Any ideas for an online system tied to the bank transfer?

[Nords]

Originally Posted by MikeD

Your dreams may be coming true later this year.

Excellent.

My next project would be to have them stop putting holds on depositing tenant's monthly rent checks just because they happen to be over $2500.

I don't mind the two-day holds since the interest is credited back to the day of deposit, but they seem to be assigned to the branch office's newest interns. Every other month I get a frantic phone call notifying me of problems with my deposit, and once the deposit was actually returned to me via snail mail so that I wouldn't have to suffer the hold delay.

I'd try to get the tenant to sign up for EFT or some version of direct deposit, but that's proven to be nearly insurmountable as well. We live only four miles away from our rental yet the check envelope travels over 20 miles through two different post offices to get from their mailbox to ours...

[REWahoo]

Originally Posted by Nords

We live only four miles away from our rental yet the check envelope travels over 20 miles through two different post offices to get from their mailbox to ours...

It's difficult for me to believe something like this could occur in an organization with 233 years of experience in moving envelopes from one address to another. What's next, no mail delivery at all?