Ally Bank is an Internet bank without a brick-and-mortar presence. I find it ironic that to date they still don’t have a mobile-optimized experience. And when I say mobile-optimized experience, I mean iPhone app.
Recently, I had a need for a bank with a mobile app that could deposit checks using the iPhone’s camera. I had considered Chase bank, but I just don’t like them. I think banks with a “you’re just a number” attitude like Chase will be given a run for their money by more forward thinking banking experiences like BankSimple, due to open this year.
I opened an account with PNC because they had an iPhone app with remote deposit. Unfortunately, the app is utter crap. It times out on login eight out of ten times. You can’t even access remote deposit until you’ve banked with them for 30 days, but they don’t mention that anywhere in the app’s description. Instead you’re left to hunt all over the app for a button that doesn’t exist. I wasted a good thirty minutes looking for it and Googling for some kind of manual. I’m likely going to close the account.
I like Ally Bank, the absence of hidden and ATM fees, and their decent web experience, but I’m left wishing that they had a top-notch mobile experience to match. I’m not alone. Point your browser at their blog and do a search for “iPhone” to see what I’m talking about. To see if I could take this discussion from their blog into a more public arena, I created the Ally Bank needs an iPhone app Facebook page. I also created an app mockup to use as an avatar and to exercise my Photoshop skills a bit. If only all banking applications looked as good and worked as well as Tweetbot.
Anyway, I guess I’ll wait until someone gets online banking right. I’m banking (pun intended) on BankSimple, but I also have high hopes for Ally. If you happen to be an Ally customer, I hope you’ll like my Facebook page.
