Mobile banking is one of the most exciting spaces for innovation because it deals with how we manage money in our daily life. Whether you’re facing the disaster of a lost card or simply want to talk to your bank without waiting in a queue, mobile banking apps are quickly becoming your one-stop destination for everyday banking.
Cardless cash from a smartwatch? – CommBank
Many banks are responding to the growing desire for wearable technology – smartwatches, Fitbits, and the like. In fact, 7 out of 18 banking institutions CANSTAR rated in 2016 offer a smartwatch app. But until now, smartwatch banking apps have largely been able to merely view an account balance and sometimes receive certain notifications.
CommBank’s smartwatch banking app takes the technology one step further, and customers can even make ATM transactions on both Apple and Android smartwatches. This is the first mobile banking app for a smartwatch in Australia that enables transactions. In fact, the smartwatch app even enables you to get cardless cash from an ATM.
In app identity verification – St.George
Don’t you hate having to go through ten thousand questions every time you phone your bank? Please list your full name, your date of birth, your home address… Oh sorry, you’re at work and don’t want to answer personal questions? Phone back later. Oh sorry, you’ve phoned outside business hours. Try again tomorrow.
At last, the solution has arrived! St.George has developed the Connect call verification method. Using a button within the app, you can call St.George directly and because you’ve logged into the app, the person answering your call will already know who you are. This saves at least 2 minutes in being identified, and you don’t have answer those annoying questions.
Face-to-face video call app
Member-owned institution Defence Bank have become the first to introduce face-to-face banking through the Video Call App. The face-to-face video call app means that members posted or transferred to remote locations can access financial advice across a range of banking services whenever they have reception.
Easy Alerts – Bankwest
Bankwest won a 2016 CANSTAR Innovation Award for the new Easy Alerts function on their mobile banking app. Customers’ phones will send them a push notification (rather than a text) to let them know when:
- Low balance: The current account balance has fallen below a set amount or is not enough to cover a scheduled payment.
- You’ve done it: The current account balance has reached your savings goal.
- Payday: A deposit has been made to the customer’s transaction or savings account.
- Fraud detection: Transactions or credit card payments have been made overseas.
- Avoid the fees: Customers should transfer some more money into their transaction account to avoid the monthly account-keeping fee.
Other institutions also have similar notification systems enabled for certain types of alert, although these are mostly sent by text message rather than in-phone push notifications. 8 out 18 banking institutions and 17 out of 37 cutomer-owned institutions researched by CANSTAR for our Mobile Banking Award offer customised alerts. Alerts include:
- Low Balance
- Withdrawal
- Deposit Received
- Dishonour Warning
- High Balance
- Credit Card (a reminder when your monthly bill comes due)
Pattern sign-in – Community Mutual Group
Sick of having to remember different PIN numbers for each card, and then another for your mobile banking app? It’s the secure way to do things but most of us find it difficult to store that many numbers in our memory. Now customers with Community Mutual Group can take a break from remembering too many PINs – they can login to the mobile banking app on Apple or Android devices by swiping a pattern instead.
Make an appointment – BankVic
Using online banking, customers can set up an appointment at a branch or with a BankVic financial planner entirely online. The system will send the customer a confirmation of the appointment and a reminder text the day before the appointment.
Easier top ups – Bendigo Bank
Bendigo Bank’s Common Transfers function makes recurring transfers easier through their mobile banking. Customers don’t need to do anything; the app’s artificial intelligence analyses customer behaviour and identifies the most common transfers they use again and again.
For example, Bendigo Bank’s research showed that overwhelmingly, customers with credit cards made a common transfer every month to repay their credit card balance using a savings or transaction account. So Common Transfers would create the “Savings > Credit Card” common action to make future transfers quicker and easier.
In the first month following the release of this function in early March 2016, Bendigo Bank has already seen over 15,000 common transfers made by customers.
Token-less secondary authentication – BOQ
Many banks including the Bank of Queensland offer an alternative to the physical Security Tokens that you used to need for secondary authentication, so customers no longer need to carry an extra device in their pocket. Now customers can simply use the mobile banking app (available for Apple, Android, and Windows) to generate an authentication code.
Applying with photo documentation – HSBC
Similar to insurance claim apps that let you take a photo within the app to submit as part of your claim, HSBC’s mobile banking app allows customers to take a photo within the app to submit along with online applications for products.
Keeping work and personal life separate – IMB
Thanks to customer feedback, IMB’s mobile banking app now allows customers who manage multiple “entities” with IMB to switch between entities within the app. This means that business owners or those who operate work credit cards can now switch easily between viewing their work accounts and personal accounts. And if your business and personal accounts aren’t already kept separate, here’s why they should be.
Cardless loyalty cards – CommBank, Passbook, etc.
Apps such as Passbook and other mobile wallets allow customers to capture, store, and scan their loyalty cards within one app, to get all those bulky loyalty cards out of your wallet. Receiving a discount or reward for your spending is now easier than ever.
Since CommBank gave customers the ability to store and use loyalty cards within their mobile banking app, over 200,000 customers have used the feature to add 850,000 cards.
Avoid unnecessary fees – Police Bank
Many banking institutions including Police Bank have a location services tool in their mobile banking app, to help Members find the nearest ATM or branch. This means you’ll never need to pay the fee to use someone else’s ATM again.
Spend less, save more – Beyond Bank
When it comes to setting saving goals, 10 out of 18 (ANZ, bank of Melbourne, BankSA, Bendigo Bank, BOQ, CBA, NAB, St George, Suncorp Bank and Ubank) banking institutions and 3 out of 37 customer-owned institutions (Encompass credit union, The Mutual and Your Credit Union) have a function in their mobile banking app that lets customers set specific savings goals.
What’s more, 6 out of 18 banks (ANZ, BOQ, CBA, NAB, Suncorp Bank and Ubank) and 1 out of 37 customer-owned institutions (Beyond Bank) have told us that they offer the ability to graph spending by category within their mobile banking app. A great example of this functionality is the Beyond Bank online and mobile banking platform, which enables push notification alerts about credits and debits, graphing of spending, and a monthly calendar showing all expected upcoming expenses and expenses already paid that month.
Another way to get your savings moving is to download a budget tracker app such as TrackMySpend. This one is no longer a new app, but it’s simply so good that we’re still talking about it. Created by money management education website ASIC’s MoneySmart, the app lets you record expenses of different types, such as the weekly household budget, work or travel expenses, and those little things that add up quickly, like coffees or lunches out. You can even create ‘favourites’ to track your most frequent expenses.
The app then lets you nominate a spending limit for a time period (per week, fortnight, month, or year) and track your progress over time. You can view your spending history and create expense reminders that are sent as text messages to your phone.
Split the bill – Suncorp Bank
April 2015 saw the launch of Australia’s first integrated bill sharing and mobile payment app: BillSplitter by Suncorp, which won a CANSTAR Innovation Award in 2016. As of April 2016, Suncorp reports over 6,000 bills worth a total of $1.4 million have been shared and paid by users using the app.
Pay your bill by taking a photo? – CommBank
CommBank is following in the footsteps of the big European banks by creating a function where Apple users can pay a bill simply by taking a photo of the invoice with their smartphone camera. The function was set to launch in mid-2016 so watch this space!
Pay a mobile number – Westpac
Westpac mobile banking app now includes a Pay to Mobile function, so customers can make a payment to anyone if they know their mobile phone number. With the Quick Balance function, they can even view the available balance of up to 3 of their accounts without even having to sign in to the mobile banking app. Westpac reports that around 1 million customers use this function every week.
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