- More members use our phone service than Internet banking for balance inquiries and transfers which tells me members are already using their cell phones to manage their accounts.
- Members that are likely to use mobile banking are also very likely to have quick access to a PC with high-speed Internet access and can put off whatever they need to do until they get back in front of it.
- The iPhone has shown what the next generation of phone browsers is going to look like and they aren't going to require optimized sites.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Mobile Banking
I've, for the time being at least, convinced my colleagues here at the credit union that mobile banking is not yet worth the time and expense. I know being able to access your accounts via your phone's browser or SMS is the latest next big thing but I'm not seeing it. Here are my problems with it:
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2 comments:
Hi Craig!
It's great to see another EverythingCU.com member blogging.
I've written a number of posts on text-messaging banking.
I don't know what the industry vendors are peddaling in terms of solutions, but if they have lots of bells and whistles and are expensive, I agree; stay away. But if they are simple (like checking balances, getting the last X transactions, and making transfers), and fairly inexpensive, then how can you not offer this to your members?
I understand that five years or so ago, there was an initial surge of interest in cell phone banking. But one that failed for a few reasons: cell phones were far more primitive back then, cell phones hadn't reached a cricial mass of interested people, solutions offered were extremely expensive, only worked on certain cell phone carriers, and required the user to download software. Everyone of those things is a barrier to adoption by consumers.
As much as I love the iPhone and will buy one soon, I think that they are so far ahead of the curve that there is still a need for SMS banking (or at least balance checking), and will be for many years.
To sum up; You should offer your members basic cell phone banking. It needs to be free, work on any cell phone carrier's system, and not require additional software to be downloaded onto the consumer's cell phone.
Hi again Craig,
I see that you blogged here in 2004 and linked to an article that "using your cell phone to move money is going to be a big, big thing."
I guess you were just way ahead of your time. I'm not sure what percentage of cell phones being sold in October of 2004 had SMS capabilities, but it was definitely cutting edge at that time. Three years later, all cell phones have SMS capability, and newer ones have browsers built in.
Plus now, PFM sites like Geezeo allow you to get your credit union or bank account balance via cell phone. So if your CU doesn't offer it, people will go to these sites to set it up via your CU's online banking. Plus PFM sites like Geezeo and Wesabe allow you to do budgeting within your bank account.
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