Technology is meant to increase efficiency and improve our lives. How we live and conduct business can be changed by technological advances. Banking is a good example of a system that most of use on a regular basis, and it is being transformed by FinTech. However, during this transitional phase, there can be some rough patches along the way. The following is a true story of the limits of technology.
My eldest son is studying in America. Recently, he received a refund check from his school insurance carrier. I am a joint signatory on my son’s bank account, so I took it upon myself to deposit this check while I was visiting.
I cheerfully and confidently made my way to the bank branch down the hill from our son’s college where we had opened the account some 15 months earlier. Here I will admit my first mistake – I did not have our son’s debit card, otherwise known as the ATM card, for the account.
Upon arriving at the local bank branch, I learned that the location was no longer a “branch” and was now only a customer service center. Because of technological improvements to the bank’s services, the full-service branch was deemed no longer necessary.
The bank’s customers were now able to make deposits and withdrawals using the ATMs. We could also make deposits and transfer funds using the bank’s app on our cell phones. By the way, this is a fantastic feature – when it works. On earlier occasion I once tried to deposit a check using a different bank’s phone app. However, that bank’s phone app was not able to read the handwriting on the check, so I was out of luck. But, I digress; let’s get back to the service center in which I now found myself.
The upshot was that I was at a bank location that did not have tellers, but it did have ATMs and it did have customer service staff. So, how to deposit the check?
ATTEMPT 1. The staff was very helpful and first directed me to use an ATM to get a code that could then be used to deposit the check via the bank’s app on my cell phone. This option did not work, in spite of trying several times. I was able to get the code from the ATM, but the phone app would not accept the code and the check could not be deposited. Limits of Technology!
ATTEMPT 2. Next, the staff tried the standard phone app deposit approach. Using the phone app, we took photos of the front and back sides of the check. We then tried to process the deposit using these photos. Going back to my earlier digression, this check I was not trying to deposit was typed out and was not handwritten. But for some reason this option was not accepted by the phone app and the check could not be deposited. In fact a customer service representative also tried themselves to use my phone app to process the deposit, and that did not work either.
As a father I must admit that I am used to younger people asking to use my phone to get something to work that I am flailing at – but in this instance it wasn’t my fault! Truly, limits to technology. Anyway, on to the next option.
ATTEMPT 3. The third time was not the charm. A customer service representative tried a different approach. I do not even know what actions were taken. All I know is that the check was plucked from me and whisked to the back and mysterious “staff only” portion of the offices. I think there was some attempt made to use a computer, but I’m honestly not sure. After a few quiet minutes, the customer service representative and my check were back in the main area of the offices, and the check was still not deposited. Whatever was tried had not been successful – limits to technology!
Side comment before we get to “Attempt 4”: At one point in the midst of this saga, I spoke with the staff about another branch of the bank that was only a few miles away. Perhaps I could go there to deposit this check. I learned that this other branch was in fact still a full-service branch, and would have tellers that could deposit the check for me. However, I was also told that this other branch was soon to be closed down. It would not even remain as a customer service center. Within a few months, it would be no more.
ATTEMPT 4. Back to the current location in which I found myself, finally the check was able to be deposited into the account. Using the decades-long practice of using a pen to fill out a deposit slip by hand (gasp), a customer service representative was able to take the check and the deposit slip into those shadowy back rooms. Then a printed receipt of the deposit was returned to me. Success!
Understandably, as I was leaving the bank I was told by the staff to hold onto the printed deposit receipt until I was certain that the check had actually been deposited into our son’s account. Luckily for us, having checked the bank’s phone app in the coming days, the deposit did seem to make its way into the account.
For anyone interested in the final tally, I had interacted with 4 employees of the bank (including a security guard that spoke with me about the surprise snow that had started falling outside the windows during my visit).
One bank branch down-sized to a customer service center, and another nearby branch being closed down altogether – only in the space of some 15 months. So, technology is having an impact on banking in all kinds of ways. From now on, I will make sure to have our debit card / ATM card with me in case these phone app deposits do not work properly.
Oh, it might also interest you to know that all of this effort was to deposit a check in the amount of USD 22.90 only.
Feature Image – https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/49024-SOS-ATM.JPG; Nenyedi, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons