Assign your banking choice

At present time consumers enthusiastic about using mobile banking services have three choices. A number of banks can offer you all of them while there are other banks that can only provide only one option.

Thus these options include:

• Text messaging that is compatible with all phones that can send and receive text messages;
• The Internet for customers who have Web browsing on their cell phones;
•

A downloadable application for a personal digital assistant or for a smart phone, including an iPhone, Motorola Q or BlackBerry. This allows a customer to transfer money between accounts as well as check balances and pay bills.

Using the first method a customer calls a number provided by his bank, enters his personal identification number and within seconds he receives a text message showing the balance of his accounts and the last few transactions.

However a customer can't transfer funds between accounts through a text- messaging version.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T preload Wachovia's banking software to their mobile devices. Yet users of other carriers can also download the application to their handset themselves.

"We didn't want to restrict our customers' ability to use mobile banking to a particular carrier or a particular device," says Wachovia spokesman Matt Wadley.