banking

Wells Fargo Launches Payment App For Android Phones

June 17, 2016 By Twila Van Leer

This summer Wells Fargo comes out with mobile payment app for Android OS 4.4 or newer phones. — This summer Wells Fargo comes out with a mobile payment app for Android OS 4.4 or newer phones.

Wells Fargo, the second largest debit card issuer and fifth largest credit card issuer, comes out with a mobile payment app for Android OS 4.4 or newer phones. The app will enable Near Field Communications (NFC) transactions for the millions of smartphones and tablets that use the app.

Wells Fargo Wallet will be added to the company’s existing mobile banking applications. Automatic refresh opportunities incorporating the WFW feature will be sent to Android users. Visa consumers and small business card customers also will be able to register.

Wells Fargo Payment App For Android Phones

Wells Fargo customers will be able to make purchases by tapping their Android phones at NFC-enabled payment terminals worldwide, including more than 1.4 million U.S. merchant locations. All transactions will be host card emulation-type, using the Visa Token Service.

Easy Sign Up Process

Wells Fargo supports Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay, apps that require a download and enrollment process for cards. WF believes some of its customers may prefer the new Wallet because of the easy sign-up process and other services offered with the mobile banking option.

Chase and Capitol One preceded WF in offering proprietary mobile payment apps. Chase Pay is QR-code-based and Capital One Wallet, like WFW, is NFC-based. WF chose NFC to allow all of its card users to have the same experience, according to Steve Ellis, head of Innovation Group at WF in Fan Francisco.

Access Debit Card Balances

Cardholders will have access to their debit card account balance or credit card line of credit within the WFW app before and immediately after a purchase. Customers will be able to use the app for ATM transactions as well, without using a physical debit or ATM card. WF ATMs will be NFC-enabled by the end of this year, Ellis said. Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay customers also will have the ATM service.

Watch For Fraud At The ATM

June 11, 2016 By Twila Van Leer

Fraudsters take $650 from each person they successfully skim.

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that you could transact business at an ATM without worrying about fraud. But the crooks are always on the alert, according to an article in the June AARP Bulletin.

Thieves Focusing On ATMs

In fact, automated teller machines have become a focus for some of those determined to benefit at your cost. The introduction of chip-enabled credit and debit cards has made it tougher for thieves to steal your information at the cash register, so they have turned more attention to the ATMs, experts warn.

Increase In Compromised ATMS

FICO Card Alert Service keeps tabs on three in five debit cards used in the U.S. and they have reported a 500-plus percent increase in the number of ATMs compromised by thieves since 2014. The proliferation of inexpensive skimming technology has been used by fraudsters to fuel the increase.

Card-Reading Devices

On average, fraudsters take $650 from each person they successfully skim, according to the ATM Industry Association. They do it by illegally installing card-reading devices at ATMs, gas pumps and other debit-processing machines located in public places. When you insert your card, their device “skims” the pertinent data from the magnetic strip. A nearby hidden camera records your PIN number. The information is then used to make duplicate cards or sold on the black market.

Skimming Technology Constantly Upgraded

The skimming technology is constantly being upgraded, giving the crooks the advantage, the article reports. Banks can’t react fast enough to stay ahead of such tricks as the “shimmers” that crooks implant inside ATM slots to read your card, or the Bluetooth processes they use to transmit your stolen data to other bad guys.

What to do?

Go inside the bank. They aren’t perfectly immune to fraud, but better than the ATM and are usually protected by cameras. The most susceptible ATMS are at convenience stores and other non-bank locations.
Inspect ATM before using it. Be wary of those with card slots that are different colors than the rest of the machine. If there is unusual-looking equipment on the slot, keypad or overhead, avoid using it. If it is difficult to insert your card, stop the transaction. Newer ATMs have a flashing or steady light at the card slot. If it is obscured, don’t use it.
Put your hand over the keypad when punching PIN numbers.
Keep close tabs on cards. Most banks offer real-time alerts via text message or email if there are suspicious transactions.
Create a separate account, smaller than normal and use it only for debit card transactions. That will cut your losses if you are illegally skimmed.
Lower the limit on daily ATM withdrawals to a reasonable amount, say $100 per day so a crook cannot make multiple withdrawals within a short time.

You Write The Check and Then What?

June 7, 2016 By Twila Van Leer

Checks are electronically scanned as part of the process.

Americans are writing fewer checks than ever as more of them handle their money matters electronically. Even so, some 18.3 billion checks were processed in a single year in 2012. Many people still feel checks give them more control over their personal finances.

Ever wonder what happens to a check after you pass it on to a merchant, family member, utility or whatever?

What happens depends to a large extent on who receives it, with different routes if it is handed to an individual vs. a business. Though some businesses and individuals still deposit checks with a financial institution in person, most are processed electronically, economic experts report.

Electronically Processed Through Scanning Devices

The checks are fed through a scanning device that takes pictures front and back. The image, along with metadata and account number, is then forwarded to the paying bank. Today’s scanners are designed with optical character recognition that reads the information on the bottom of the check and the handwritten or printed amount of the payment. Even small scanners can process about 45 checks per minute. Larger ones handle hundreds or even thousands in the same time frame.

For such a small piece of paper, a check contains a significant amount of information, at least nine pieces of data in most cases. They include the date on which it is written, the recipient, the amount of payment in both figures and words, a memo to specify what it is intended for, which is optional, your signature, the routing number, checking account number and the number of this single check.

The line of information at the bottom of the check includes numbers and symbols that give the bank routing and transit numbers, the customer account information and individual check numbers. In the business, it is known as the MICR line, an acronym for “magnetic ink character readable.”

Smart Phone Apps

Many smartphones have apps that can turn a paper check into an electronic image. They take pictures, via the phone camera, front and back of the check, and transmit the pictures to the bank when the check is deposited.

When a bank receives the image, the check can be processed or cleared, through the Federal Reserve Bank’s national clearinghouse, a regional clearinghouse or a direct connection between two financial institutions.

The number of checks processed in this manner has increased significantly. In 2006, 43 percent of them were scanned and electronically handled. By 2012, the figure was almost 100 percent.

What If You Lack Sufficient Funds To Back The Check?

It will be processed, again electronically, and returned to the back on which it was written. More than 127 million “bouncers” were returned to the bank of origin in 2006. Again, by 2012, the number had fallen by almost half, with just 66.4 million returned unpaid.

Although electronic banking will likely continue to make inroads into check transactions, it’s still a great way to handle your money affairs.

Wal-Mart Offers new GoBank Accounts Sans Overdraft Fees

October 8, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

Walmart Is Offering Pre-Paid Debit Cards — Walmart Is Offering Reloadable Pre-Paid Cards

Joining other large retailers that engage in semi-banking practices, shopping giant Wal-Mart has opted to provide a card-based program for customers who may overspend their accounts while purchasing in their stores.

The world’s largest retailer had teamed with Green Dot Corp., a leader in creating reloadable prepaid cards. New mobile checking accounts issued by Wal-Mart under the cooperative effort will not require fees for overdrafts and bounced checks. An $8.95 monthly fee will be charged for these GoBank accounts. The fee is waived if there is a deposit of $500 or more each month.

Accounts can be opened by purchasing a $2.95 starter kit at any Wal-Mart Store. A smartphone is a necessity, since most of the banking transactions are done through an app. Credit Bureau ratings commonly used to determine eligibility are not part of the application requirements. The idea behind GoBank is to provide options for people who don’t have a lot of money and may have poor credit scores.

The kit includes a MasterCard debit card that can be used to withdraw money or make purchases. No fee is charged for ATM withdrawal services at the 42,000 locations around the country. If money is withdrawn from ATMs outside the system, a $2.50 charge is levied. A 3 percent fee is added to withdrawals outside the United States.

The new arrangement is one of several moves being made to help Americans who are still feeling the effects of the recent recession. Both Bank of America and Citibank have begun offering fee-free accounts this year.

Regulators have been looking more closely at overdraft fees, which in some instances can go up to $35 per incident. The regulators have responded to concerns by requiring banks to get written approval from a customer to provide overdraft protection, which allows a customer’s account to dip below zero. Those who choose to have the overdraft protection still pay high fees. Some customers at large banks regularly rack up fees in the neighborhood of $260 a year, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Wal-Mart’s Daniel Eckert, senior vice president for services, said GoBank was the retailer’s response to customer concerns that regular banking fees are too high.

How Your Spending Data Is Being Used By Banks

January 10, 2014 By Sherry Tingley

Customer spending patterns are analyzed by algorithms.

Targeted advertising has reached a whole new level in the “Card Linked Space.” If you bank with one of the 400 financial institutions (including Bank of America, Regions Bank, PNC Bank, Fiserv, and Intuit) that have partnered with Cardlytics, then every spending action that you make with a debit card is stored and analyzed to serve you with the perfect advertisement.

Shopping for groceries? Sporting Goods? Boutiques? Accessories? Home Improvement? You will receive ads that target items commonly sold by those types of merchants. If they had item level data on your purchases, you would see adds for individual items, but banks only get the total amount spent and the merchant names.

Understanding how the algorithms could work with your data takes a little imagination. Can your spending patterns lead them to the conclusion that you are a mom driving kids to and from school and after school activities. Can they tell if you are single or married? Can they tell if you are a baby boomer or senior citizen? Using this information can they predict what types of products you might be interested in?

Lynne Laube & Scott Grimes - Creators of Cardlytics - Photo from Forbes Magazine — Lynne Laube & Scott Grimes – Creators of Cardlytics – Photo from Forbes Magazine

Cardlytics, a company that analyzes $500 billion dollars worth of spending – over 11 billion transactions, seems to be able to accomplish this. They have been accurate enough that hedge funds call and ask to buy their data to predicts increases or decreases in sales. In fact, Cardlytics has patented (U.S. Patent No. 8,595,065) the spending algorithms calling them – Cardlytics Offer Placement System (OPS).

Is it all an invasion of privacy or is there some good to be found?

According to a recent article “Reading Your Financial Footprint,” in Forbes Magazine (Dec. 16, 2013), customers have saved $17,000,000. Sales generated were a staggering $700,000,000. Depending on how you interpret those results, it seems like the whole system actually saves you money.

Interesting to note is that the people that started Cardlytics, Lynne Laube and Scott Grimes had significant experience with the banking industry. Lynne Laube was the Vice President and COO of Capital One and Scott Grimes was their Senior Vice President and general manager. Both with finance, business and marketing backgrounds these two entrepreneurs look young enough to be included in the millionaires under 40 club.

For consumers, we are not likely to see this type of advertising go away. In fact, it will probably increase more as even more sophisticated algorithms are developed. The upside to consumers is not only saving money on products they would be purchasing anyway, but saving them time hunting for bargains, loyalty cards or bulk purchasing deals. Marketing certainly seems to be at the top of it’s game in 2014.