Modern Bank Account with Solid App Showing More Transaction Details
April 8, 2018 8:28 AM Subscribe
Is there a bank with a checking account that, say a year+ from now, actually lets me see an image of checks I deposit today?
Most checking account apps will show you images of a check you've written, but I've yet to come across one that will show images of checks from other people that I deposit, except some show them in the mobile deposit tab for maybe 30 days.
What I want is an app that shows them in the line-item list of transactions, no matter the date they were posted. I just can't remember everything I've ever deposited, and sometimes it drives me nuts not knowing what certain mystery deposits actually came from.
Does such a bank account/app exist?
Most checking account apps will show you images of a check you've written, but I've yet to come across one that will show images of checks from other people that I deposit, except some show them in the mobile deposit tab for maybe 30 days.
What I want is an app that shows them in the line-item list of transactions, no matter the date they were posted. I just can't remember everything I've ever deposited, and sometimes it drives me nuts not knowing what certain mystery deposits actually came from.
Does such a bank account/app exist?
I have a small business where I really need to be able to see check images long after the year has closed. I've searched far and wide for a good solution and the banks just don't provide it. More specifically, they convert older images to a super low resolution so you end up with pixelated scans where you can't make out the memo line, the date, or the payor (my experience with several different banks). So in theory you can pull up an old check but in reality at least 2 out of 3 checks will be absolutely useless. Not to mention that the banks see this as an additional revenue source so they will nickel and dime you to get access.
The solution is to store the images in your email. In my case, I bank with Wells Fargo so I deposit the checks via their mobile app, the app sends me an immediate email with a clear full-res image of the front of the check, and my gmail is set up to filter those messages into a designated archive folder so they are out of the way but I have access whenever I need it, indefinitely and for free. The difference between the images in my gmail and the images in Wells Fargo's online and mobile banking is huge - the former is always clearly readable while the latter is only partially readable on one out of several checks. The whole setup took me about 15 minutes and gmail's text search works surprisingly well to locate individual checks.
posted by rada at 9:38 AM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
The solution is to store the images in your email. In my case, I bank with Wells Fargo so I deposit the checks via their mobile app, the app sends me an immediate email with a clear full-res image of the front of the check, and my gmail is set up to filter those messages into a designated archive folder so they are out of the way but I have access whenever I need it, indefinitely and for free. The difference between the images in my gmail and the images in Wells Fargo's online and mobile banking is huge - the former is always clearly readable while the latter is only partially readable on one out of several checks. The whole setup took me about 15 minutes and gmail's text search works surprisingly well to locate individual checks.
posted by rada at 9:38 AM on April 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
I use Ally bank, which does show images of deposited checks (as well as ones I've written). Looks like they keep 18 months of history (including those images).
posted by jacobian at 10:21 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by jacobian at 10:21 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Chase offers it in their app, but there's no easy way to go back to much older dates other than scrolling over and over to go back farther in time. But it will be there.
Their website lets you filter by transaction type, which makes it much easier to find the image you want.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:58 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Their website lets you filter by transaction type, which makes it much easier to find the image you want.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:58 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Good to know Ally has this. I've tried Simple, but thought about trying Ally.
Chase seems like one of the better apps out there, but still plenty of room for improvement as far as I could tell from my short, limited usage of it a year or so ago. I have many complaints about many banking apps, but the forced endless scrolling is definitely among the worst. All of them should allow users to quickly filter the transactions by type, even if it piles them all together and requires the load more/endless scrolling to get to older transactions, that way we can get to what we're looking for faster.
Opposite end of the spectrum are the banking apps that let you choose a date range, but then only shows you a limited number of transactions, thus making you go back and refine the range further. But that's another story for another post (not necessarily worth posting).
posted by purefusion at 2:33 PM on April 8, 2018
Chase seems like one of the better apps out there, but still plenty of room for improvement as far as I could tell from my short, limited usage of it a year or so ago. I have many complaints about many banking apps, but the forced endless scrolling is definitely among the worst. All of them should allow users to quickly filter the transactions by type, even if it piles them all together and requires the load more/endless scrolling to get to older transactions, that way we can get to what we're looking for faster.
Opposite end of the spectrum are the banking apps that let you choose a date range, but then only shows you a limited number of transactions, thus making you go back and refine the range further. But that's another story for another post (not necessarily worth posting).
posted by purefusion at 2:33 PM on April 8, 2018
Ally shows me check images in the web interface, but the app (at least on Android) does not.
posted by whatnotever at 6:31 PM on April 8, 2018
posted by whatnotever at 6:31 PM on April 8, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by adamrice at 8:42 AM on April 8, 2018 [1 favorite]