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Comment by epikur | Hacker News Reader

I like USAA's iPhone (or scanner) check deposit. You have to have a credit card or a loan with them, but when you submit a check, you instantly get the money. However, you also have to write a little note with your account number on the back of each check, which could be a pain if you had a stack of checks.

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USAA is great. I used to deposit with a crappy android phone, and it would fail half the time, but since I got the iPhone 4S it has not failed once. I'm sure it's related to image quality. USAA has a $5K limit per day, and you can log in with just a PIN. Their service in general is awesome, and the phone deposit is very convenient.

For some, it's a $10K limit.

You can't get a credit card, loan, or insurance product (and by extension, remote deposit access) without a "military connection". I really wish the breathless USAA cheerleaders that come out of the woodwork all over the Internet every time there is a banking thread would remember to mention this.

I'm having trouble getting a reference to USAAs current eligibility information, because their website is a mess of badly named links and what Google finds redirects me to their homepage, but as I understand it pretty much everything under their banking umbrella is now available to everyone, including the credit card and loan stuff, and with it, remote deposit access. That said these breathless USAA cheerleaders should try having actual contentions with them sometime, it's a pretty poor experience reminiscent of news stories you hear about BoA and similar

I've been a USAA customer since 1999 and have always had great customer service from them. The most recent instance was about a year ago or so I had several charges I didn't recognize for a few hundred bucks each hit my checking account one morning. They were all for perfume and shoe stores in the UK (I was living in FL at the time). It took about 5 minutes on the phone to get the charges removed and a new card on the way.

You don't need any sort of "military" connections to use or be a customer at the USAA bank. Almost all banking services are open to anyone.

Insurance is another matter though...

Loans and by extension remote deposit all require a military connection, like I said. (It turns out anyone can get a credit card, which unfortunately is not 'enough' for RD)

From https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/no_fee_checking_main?offerNa...

"Deposit@Mobile® using your iPhone®, iPad® or Android™ device. Available to qualified members.2,3"

2: 2 You must qualify for USAA's Deposit@Home® and Deposit@Mobile®; eligibility for USAA property and casualty insurance and credit qualification required. Deposits may not be available for immediate withdrawal. (3 is a trademark disclosure.)

Okay, so you have to be eligible for USAA property and casualty insurance. How do you do that?

From https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/mobile_banking_dm:

"You must have a USAA checking or savings account and:

Have an active USAA property and casualty insurance policy and be qualified for a USAA loan or credit card (not a USAA Secured Card). OR Be eligible for USAA property and casualty insurance and have an active USAA loan or credit card (not a USAA Secured Card)."

So, you must have or be eligible for insurance. How are you eligible for insurance?

From https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/why_choose_usaa_main: (click "A legacy to pass down", then "Other individuals")

"USAA auto and property insurance is not available due to membership eligibility requirements."

So, you can't use remote deposit. And yes, you really need to read through at least 4 pages on their website to find this out.

USAA's iPhone check deposit works great. It take about two minutes total to take the photos and submit a check – and have the balance available in my account. The one time I mistyped a number took a 10-minute call to resolve. USAA's website and app could use some UI improvements, but the functionality is there.

You do have to have some sort of military connection to become a member of USAA. Link: https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/pub_eligibility_task_entry

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