My parents are in a similar boat and use an iPad for stuff like this. You can use accessibility tools to increase the size of fonts and buttons and make it much easier to use. You also then do not need any of the cellular capability that a phone gives you.
That letter… wow. Telling their customers that their scenario isn’t important generally isn’t a good way to communicate feature deprecation. I don’t use desktop-based check deposit, but if I did, that note would be enough to kick them to the curb.
Years ago we had a TV set, called a “Pilot Radio”, which had a 3" screen. Thereafter the family moved up quickly to television sets having larger and then MUCH larger screens.
When it comes to screen size of anything, smaller is definitely NOT better.
To be fair… we don’t know that, and I say that as someone who is bearish on Alliant. To Scripta’s point, it’s possible that Ensenta is charging more for their platform, or they are making a breaking API change that requires Alliant to do a bunch of work on their end to ensure the feature works.
They ran the numbers, saw 1% of the customer base used this feature in the last year, and decided that any customers it lost over this decision was worth not having to invest in keeping this up and running. I think it’s fine to disagree with it and call it “foolish” as you put it, but neither you or I know whether it’s needless.
I mean, should it be really surprising that a credit union whose business model is built on technology and internet banking is halting support for scanned checks on a flatbed scanner? It’s the same reason why bank-by-phone is dying - it was novel for its time, but has been supplanted by apps on Android and iOS devices. The consumer flatbed scanner market isn’t exactly hot right now - my local Craigslist is littered with people trying to get rid of them.
To me this is exactly the point, “a business model built on technology and internet banking” taking away an online feature seems to me like they want me to use one of many ATMs within walking distance of me. And I might if I didn’t have 3-4 other online accounts that provide this exact same functionality.
I get that the drive is to have everything go to apps but for me “banking” is something I do at my desk with a nice monitor and keyboard with a hardwired Ethernet connection to my router that has fiber.
I agree. It is, however, possible to connect a keyboard, a mouse, and a large screen to a smartphone. You know, in case us old fogies can’t stop this silly train.
They responded with the customary pish posh. I took their survey, using it once again to blast them for withdrawing electronic check deposits.
I hope others will join me in condemning this decision on their part. I’m convinced if they get enough negative feedback they will back off. It’s easy to message them after logging in to your account.
Let 'em have it!! Costs nothing and it might help.
@Treffen Hanscom FCU has it also. I used it years ago and just confirmed they have it. I think it is the same idea as Alliant’s but I have not used it on Alliant.
Hanscom calls it “EasyDeposit”.
EDIT: I found in the past that the check upload/desktop option is often better/easier. I have the Alliant app (and Hanscom’s). I deposit the occasional check into Alliant using their app. I have had issues lining up the front and back in their boxes and other weird issues sometimes. None of these have been “showstoppers” but I can see that annoyance also pushing folks with more regular check deposits to want the better desktop option.
I linked my Ally and Barclay accounts with Alliant, both of them have a version. I used the Barclay version once in the past and it worked. I noted it was ‘very clunky’ in comparison to Alliant. I hope Ally is better.
Wonder if Alliant will raise the rate May 2. My guess would be no but they could surprise us and go to 0.70%. The Fed is likely to raise interest rates by 0.50% and maybe even 0.75% later that month anyway,
Looks like no rate increase from Alliant this month.
I did notice that today’s app update for the iPhone had a “deposit limit increase” feature listed. Sure enough, I opened the app before updating and it said the limit was $50k, after the update it’s now $100k.
The difference is afterwards. The deposit has to wait a business day for “approval” and then there’s a couple of days of hold and such crap, but overall It’s acceptable.
I haven’t used the mobile check deposit feature with Alliant for awhile, and tried to use it now (in the app) and couldn’t: it’s rejecting the back image with error “The back image is too light”. I’ve tried different lighting, putting the check on a dark surface - nothing helps. The back of the check is plain white with a thin line and an endorsement above it in a black pen. What else are they expecting?? Ridiculous. Deposited the check to Discover bank with their app with no issues.
By the way I used to use the scanned image deposit on the website years ago, but not recently.
