Ally Bank and ING Direct Working on Remote Deposit Capture

Both ING Direct and Ally Bank have nice checking accounts, but one thing they currently lack is remote deposit capture in which you can deposit checks with either a home PC/scanner or smartphone. Now you either have to mail in the check for deposit or deposit the check at your local bank, and then initiate an ACH transfer. That may soon be changing. I received information from Ally and ING Direct representatives who say they're working on it.

Here's what I received from an Ally Bank representative:

This is an echeck deposit feature we are still working on. The feature is not fully released yet and we are going to be testing it on up to 25,000 new customers that are not Ally customers yet. No release date has been posted yet for our existing customers.

I called ING Direct today, and according to the ING Direct representative, their remote deposit service is "in the works" and is "being tested". I was told the expected release date is summer or fall of this year.

With remote check deposit, you may no longer need a brick-and-mortar bank. So internet banks have the most to gain with offering this service. You would think that this service would be common at internet banks. But it's not, and only a few currently offer it.

Late last year I reviewed banks and credit unions offering remote deposit. USAA Bank is probably the best known internet bank offering remote deposit (called Deposit@Home), but it's limited to members who are eligible for USAA property and casualty insurance. This requires some military connection.

EverBank started offering its remote deposit service, called Online Check Deposits, last year, and this service is available to all EverBank customers. I did a review of EverBank's remove deposit in October.

So ING Direct and Ally are a little behind at releasing this service. I hope they do release it this year.