Depositing Checks while on the road - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Sandy · RV-Dreams Community Member

Depositing Checks while on the road

RVDude · RV-Dreams Family Member

PITA!
I have a Bank of American account and the have branches in many states. Otherwise, US Mail to my bank's bank-by-mail address! Sometimes UPS if I feel the need to track it.

If I expect a regular payment, I'll have them deposit directly to my bank, or handle everything via ACH online.

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have most everything direct deposited and the stray check we mail to our bank.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

That is one advantage of E*Trade Bank, it is mostly an online bank and they provide mailing labels for sending in those deposits. They have better rates than the sticks and bricks banks.

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

We do the same as Fred. If and when one comes we simply mail it to the one gal at our bank and she takes care of it.
southwestjudy

Froggi · RV-Dreams Family Member

I just mail mine and have for years. I've belonged to a credit union in CO for close to 20 years and had NEVER set foot in it until last week when we went in to change my name and add my husband to the account. LOL!

wmalefyt · RV-Dreams Family Member

My son works for USAA and he just told me that he can deposit checks by scanning them into his computer and downloading them to his USAA account.

Here's a link: https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=bank_deposit

I like that, especially for fulltimers on the road all the time! I hope other banks will be offering this service soon.

-- Edited by wmalefyt on Sunday 24th of May 2009 12:23:56 PM

Sandy · RV-Dreams Community Member

wmalefyt wrote:

My son works for USAA and he just told me that he can deposit checks by scanning them into his computer and downloading them to his USAA account.

Here's a link: https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=bank_deposit

I like that, especially for fulltimers on the road all the time! I hope other banks will be offering this service soon.

-- Edited by wmalefyt on Sunday 24th of May 2009 12:23:56 PM

Thanks to everyone for your responses, I think we will just get deposit slips from our bank and send in any "For Deposit only to our given account". Our regular deposit will be direct deposit, so hopefully we won't have too many.

I belive USAA is for military personnel only, which we are not. I found that several banks do this for business only, hopefully this will be something they will look at soon for personal accounts.

Thanks again, Sandy

wmalefyt · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sandy wrote:

wmalefyt wrote:

My son works for USAA and he just told me that he can deposit checks by scanning them into his computer and downloading them to his USAA account.

Here's a link: https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=bank_deposit

I like that, especially for fulltimers on the road all the time! I hope other banks will be offering this service soon.

-- Edited by wmalefyt on Sunday 24th of May 2009 12:23:56 PM

Thanks to everyone for your responses, I think we will just get deposit slips from our bank and send in any "For Deposit only to our given account". Our regular deposit will be direct deposit, so hopefully we won't have too many.

I belive USAA is for military personnel only, which we are not. I found that several banks do this for business only, hopefully this will be something they will look at soon for personal accounts.

Thanks again, Sandy

Yes, USAA is for active or retired military personnel. There are some other membership catagories so it's best to go on their website where you will find how to determine if you qualify.

pierreandcolleen · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have most things direct deposited. For the occasional check, we mail it in to our local (back home) bank. But allow a week or two before you need to draw on those funds.

I do have one account with an on-line (no branch) bank. It is easy to transfer money between them and other banks through their website, but the first couple times I tried to mail in a deposit it took nearly a month and it should only take a week or two. I no longer mail checks to them.

We have had no problems mailing checks to our local bank.

-Colleen

TimW · RV-Dreams Community Member

State Farm Bank has remote deposit. You can use your Iphone or home scanner to depsit checks. They are an online bank and offer full banking services. Check them out at www.statefarm.com. I have used it on my scanner and it is a fairly simple process.

Pinon · RV-Dreams Family Member

That's a good question - I hadn't thought about that. We have a recurring check we can't get direct deposited. A year ago my wife fell at work (wet floor in a dark room) and had to have knee surgery. Workers comp plus health insurance covered the surgery (which is all we wanted) but they gave her a settlement of $13 a month! I assume it is so she can't sue (which she wouldn't have done) but now we have these stupid $13 checks they won't direct deposit.
Heidi

wmalefyt · RV-Dreams Family Member

Our local Wachovia/Wells Fargo bank recently installed a new ATM that allows you to deposit checks without using an envelope. If you have multiple accounts, you can designate which one to deposit into and then print out a receipt that includes a picture of the check just deposited. I've used it several times and works great.

The Crumps · RV-Dreams Family Member

We belong to a Credit Union. I checked with them and they said they are part of a credit union organization and they are all over the country. We can go into any CU with this affiliation and bank as though we were at home. We tried it once in Nevada and it worked perfectly. They were able to pull our account up on their PC immediately. I'm sure this would work with any national banking organization or chain.

Bill Adams · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are Bank of America customers and we are able to bank in nearly every city in the US. The exceptions are some areas in the mid-West and a couple of other States but which ones elude me at the moment. In the last 10 years of travel we have only had to mail our checks to the bank 4 or 5 times as there has been a bank close by or at our next destination.

-- Edited by Bill Adams on Friday 11th of March 2011 05:06:17 PM

pierreandcolleen · RV-Dreams Family Member

We just mailed ours to our community bank. If it was of any substantial amount I would make a copy of it before sending it out, but I never had any problems.

Some might find the convenience of the larger banks appealing, but I personally prefer the smaller banks as they're more likely to help you out if you have a problem (rather than putting you on hold and transferring you around for several hours until you give up like the giant banks like to do).

-Colleen

Jake62 · RV-Dreams Family Member

USAA has several ways since they really only have a branch in San Antonio. The first is you can "scan" your check thru a scanner or your IPhone. Or, you can use any of their UPS authorized locations. I believe by this spring, there will be at about 1,300 locations throughout the US. Of course, you could mail it ... by why wait?

pierreandcolleen · RV-Dreams Family Member

That's pretty cool!

rvingft · RV-Dreams Family Member

Another option is an account with a credit union. As an Escapee member, we joined Alliant CU - which is based in ILLINOIS, but we can bank at many CU members around the county. You can find a list of participating ATM's by using their online search at:

http://www.alliantcreditunion.org/about/atms/

They also partner with Bank of the West, one of the few lenders for full-time RVers. They have a few physical locations around the country, and we did stop in at their AZ location when we were in the area last year.

So far, we have been very pleased. Did all our opening transactions online, and funded the new account by mail.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Chase and USBank also have 'deposit by iPhone' (and perhaps other smartphones). We love it. We can do our banking in our PJs :)

We've found Chase to be fairly nationwide and use them for both personal and business. We also love their QuickPay feature which lets us send/receive payments electronically from anyone for free. It works much like PayPal, but without the fees.

- Cherie

Oregonhiker · RV-Dreams Family Member

If you are a member at a credit union many are set up with shared branching that you can go into other credit unions and conduct your business. There are something like 6600+ locations around the US. It makes it pretty handy for being on the road. Check out http://www.cuswirl.com/ to find credit unions that participate.

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm with Cherie love depositing by iPhone to Chase & quick pay.

RVRon · RV-Dreams Family Member

Our credit union from Florida has the scan option on their website. It works like a charm... just scan both sides of the check and viola the check is deposited. Couldn't be easier! We thought we'd have to get hooked up with a nationwide bank like Chase or Bank of America but that hasn't proven to be necessary. We can link Quicken to our bank accounts and pay our bills while keeping track of our finances. Just one example of why it's easier to fulltime now than even just 3 or 4 years ago!