John Milner.

Mobile banking in 2012

In late 2010, I switched banks from CitiBank to Ally.com. The decision was easy: no fees, ATM reimbursements, great customer service, and a good online platform. It was a fantastic decision, one which I am still happy I made.  Fast forward to 2012, Ally still has essentially the same interface, feature set (although they have added the ability to deposit checks using a desktop scanner), and customer service. They are still a good bank. At the time the large main street banks had horrible online or mobile products which made the decison easy. However, I find myself wondering if its time to make another move.

Today, all the large banks have advanced mobile (iPhone and iPad) applcaitions and online platforms that are as good or better than Ally’s (take for instance American Express’s iPad app). One primarly reason for my switch was the lack of Citi ATM’s in my area. Howerver, now that I am in San Francisco there are pelntly of locations for the large banks here (BofA, Wells, Chase, etc) and with the rise in electronic payments over the last year, I find myself visitng ATMs less frequently, and most of the time its to deposit funds into an account to later transfer to Ally (as that is the easiest way i have fond to deposts funds to Ally). 

Its true, you can access Ally’s online site via the browser on the iPad, but its painful and the billpay is even more painful (should only be attempted if absolutly necessary). Ally has stated they are on track to release a basic mobile app in 2012 with later versions (hopefully in 2012) to potentially include billpay and check depsoit via camera image, but truefully its a little late for that. Online only banks are great so long as their technology and ease of use stays ahead, but now the major banks have advanced technology (mobile and online) and have the physical presence to enahnce the equation. In 2012, most things I do are via a mobile platform. If I cant do something on my iPhone or iPad, I likley will not do it. This trend will only continue for more and more of the population. 

The one cavate is fees. Ally is a great fee free bank and while the BofA account I used to deposit funds for transfer to Ally also has no fees who knows how long that will continue. It’s time for Ally to catch up with its competition.