The Downside to Mobile Check Deposits

Yes, there is a major downside to mobile check depositing.

Fortunately, the downside is to banks and credit unions – not to consumers using mobile deposit.

Growing up how often did an adult caution you that “you can’t have your cake and eat it too?”

I know I heard it fairly frequently when I was making an unreasonable request or had some unreasonable expectation.

Perhaps you were told “you can’t have it both ways.”

Well this is what comes to mind each time I encounter a newspaper ad from a local bank or credit union promoting its new mobile check deposit service.

Here’s the latest such ad from a local Sacramento-area credit union.

Note the ad’s subhead, “A smarter way to deposit.”

I think we can assume this means it is not smart to continue visiting your local branch to deposit a check.  Why waste the time and effort when you can simply take a photo of your check and deposit it using a simple software program on your mobile phone?

So, let’s see if I understand what’s happening today with banks, credit unions, and branches.