When I started work at a company we got pay checks every week. Then the company went to direct deposit but we got an 'advice paper' that looked similar to the pay stub without the check part. Then nothing . The pension is direct deposit and no paper work to the house.
The bank stopped returning checks many years ago, but I can go on line and get a photo of the check. I do have it set up with the bank that anything over $ 100 I get an email notication of incoming or outgoing money.
The way I see it, processing images in the mobile app is much easier for the bank than from a scanned image on a PC.
They "force" you to center the item in the frame, they can review the image for clarity before it is transmitted, etc.
They can basically control the entire process, something they can't do quite as easily when you add in all the other variables that a PC/Mac would involve. Platform, scan quality, crooked images, file type, user error, etc.
Maybe I've got the "how it would work" steps wrong, but the way I see it, a PC/Mac app would require "manually" uploading a jpg or PDF which would then have to be processed by the bank's system. Obviously the user would need to create that file first, either scanning the check (both sides) saving the file, attaching the file, etc. or taking 2 pictures with mobile phone, transferring them to the PC/Mac, attaching them, etc. Then the bank's system would need to open and read those files to complete the transaction.
Maybe there is a way to transfer the images directly from the scanner into the bank's app/website on a PC/Mac for "review" before transmitting, but there are so many different system configurations out there (both software and hardware) that I would think getting that to work smoothly for all users would be pretty tough.
The user experience is what makes mobile banking work or not. Mobile phone apps are easier to control and maintain than anything that would would run on a PC/Mac, even if the app ran in a browser. Offering something that doesn't work consistently is a great way to lose customers, even if other banks don't even offer that feature.
Can you point us towards some articles that support that claim?
All clerks stealing $100K? (or "seeming to" anyways).
Seems like quite an outrageous claim.
How do you know that? What's your citation to support that? How do you know that it applies to all 3,006 counties in the USA?
Not in my county:
"A vendor-added convenience fee will be charged for using a debit or credit card to make payments. Electronic Check (eCheck) payments are free. This fee will be added to your total payment."
"This fee is not an additional tax. The convenience fee is added to cover the fees charged by the credit/debit card companies to provide the service and maintain their network. The fee amount is based upon a percentage of the transaction.
If you elect to pay by credit card, please be aware that these fees are added to your transaction.
The current convenience fees are:
Credit/Debit Card - 2.25% of the taxes being paid (minimum $2.50 convenience charge)
eCheck - No convenience fee for the taxpayer
"Risky behavior" is a nebulous term.
There's different levels of risk. In more than half a century I don't know that I've ever had a piece of outgoing mail get stolen. If I have, it must not have been an important one, because I haven't had to deal with it afterwards.
While I don't live out in the country, I'm on a short, quiet street, in a quiet neighborhood, with typical older, middle class homes. Nothing fancy, I'm on a side street off of a side street off of a side street. There's never any "cut through traffic".
In terms of "risk vs. reward", anyone trolling my street looking to steal envelopes of unknown contents hanging on mail boxes is probably wasting their time. There are better parts of town and the nearby city for them to try.
I just spent more time worrying about how to word this post than the total time spent worrying about my mail getting stolen over the past 50+ years. ;-)
But possibly in some towns/counties.
I pay my county taxes through my town. One bill for both. My town charges 3% for CC payments. Your county charges 2.25%, which they say is to cover what the CC companies charge. So either the CC companies are charging different rates for different towns/counties or my town/county is tacking on .75% to cover something or to pad the town/county coffers.
I don't really care, since for the cost of a stamp, I just pay by check.
So is this a national bank that I might have an account at, and I should be careful? What bank is it? Same question for Marilyn, what bank need I not be concerned about?
Alternatively, is either Bank of America, where my account is?
I haven't written a check in a long time. I do use paypal directly, and Bill Pay (both repeating payments initiated by my bank schedule and by bills sent by my creditors), and I've deposited checks using the cell phone.
And when I didnt' get enough cash at the supermarket, I used to go to the ATM for cash several times a year, but since Corona, I charge almost everything. I do remember driving through the drive through for some reason, but maybe that was the place next door, McDonalds.
I found my niece on the Abandoned Property list of Penn. a few years ago, and that's strange because she was still a teenager and had no money to abandon, and didn't live in Penn. nor did her parents or the pair of grandparents she had. It also was little money, but still.
Way more than a few bucks. A lot less happens at the bank because of that. BoA was able to close the regional check processing center here completely when "imaging" became a thing. 250-300 people were laid off. Once they get a picture of that check they can destroy it instead of doing all the steps to get it back to you. Most places that take your check end up throwing it away. Once it is scanned it is just a paper trail for them. The bank doesn't need it. We have a number of places here that just scan checks and hand them back to you. My stone yard was doing that 20 years ago.
Presorted junk mail is certainly what pays for that guy to come by your house 6 days a week. The back office processing is nil on that stuff. In most cases it arrives at your local PO, in bundles for each delivery person. It should be sorted based on how the route is laid out to run.
It is an option for me. On the "premier" checking account I get the images. On the regular accounts I don't. The cost for the bank is negligible. It is all in the same computer that generates your statement. They are just paying for a couple extra pages to be printed. (amongst the other pages of boilerplate you throw away). Those high speed laser printers don't care what they print. It is all the same to them. The Pitney Bowes stuffer takes those printouts and stuffs them in envelopes, prints the postage on them and spits them out. For the operators it is a mind numbing job.
When banks and utilities get everyone to go "paperless" the USPS will have even less reason to be. Without bills, statements and junk mail, this is just a Birthday Card delivery service. A buck a flat (inflation adjusted) may be a reality real soon and they will still lose money.
When was the last time you saw a credit card imprinted on a charge slip? Now it is a swipe or a chip read. There is no charge slip. They may print a receipt on the register, they might even want you to sign a copy but that has nothing to do with the charge. When they read your card and put in the total, you were charged. It has been that way for over 35 years if they had the online machine. We had a dial up terminal at the store we owned in 1986 but it worked the same way. We used to have people sign but that was just for our records. The bank didn't want them. Doing that reduced the "vig" on the transaction from 4% to 2%. (Visa/MC). Amex was still 5% no matter what so we didn't take it.
"1.5% to 2.9% for swiped cards".
That will depend on the volume and a state tax collector is a very high volume customer. We were relatively low volume and we got 2% as soon as we went paperless.
Maybe in your state they don't press for the best rate but I am sure they do here. The extra charge is just more money for the state. I am not sure if, as Cindy points out, it costs them more to process checks. Perhaps not any more since they scan them here, right at the window where you pay. That may actually be the end of it. Other than auditing the transactions, humans may not be involved after that.
Nowhere does it say what they pay, only what they charge you. The
0.25% may be what they say their internal processing costs or maybe they just charge you because they can. Hence the term "convenience fee" instead of "Credit card cost" (or some other more specific term).
BoA is the one most likely to screw with me about it because it is my most seldom used. All it takes to reset the clock is to do an ATM transaction.
I stopped looking because nobody in my family ever left a dime on the table ;)
That doesn't support your assertion that the taxing authority is getting 1% vig.
2.25% flat, with no "vig" to the county.
And you know that, how?
Because they say so on their website and on each tax bill.
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