Bank of America Touts its Mobile Banking as iPhone App
October 18, 2007 at 9:59 am by Ehab Bandar
In a move sure to set a precedent, Bank of America is the first banking application featured on Apple’s iPhone App directory.
Here’s their intro:
Bank of America Mobile Banking is available to all Online Banking customers. With Mobile Banking you can use your iPhone or iPod touch to easily and securely check your balance, pay your bills, transfer funds, or find a nearby ATM or banking center. It’s easy, fast, and convenient — just use the Safari browser on your iPhone or iPod touch to go to www.bofa.mobi and you can get started.
Although other banks have mobile banking Websites that work equally well on the iPhone, they’re the first to proactively promote it as an iPhone app. It’s a smart move given that many sites still need to tweak their interface code to be optimized on the iPhone screen. As a result, iPhone users are often frustrated with their experience on sites that are not optimized.
Sites like Facebook have led the way in adapting their site to the iPhone, and it’s no easy task (hear Techcrunch’s interview with the developer behind the iPhone Facebook for his take). The challenge with iPhone is that designs that work on most mobile phones look pretty bad on the iPhone, and sites designed for a full-screen monitor are cumbersome to use. But with the challenges also come an amazing array of opportunities, such as increased screen real estate, animation, and a growing list of developer tools. And with the recent announcement by Steve Jobs of a developer kit for 3rd party applications coming out in February 2008, it’s more critical than ever that Websites optimize their sites.
With the iPhone, while form follows function, for many Websites, that means having to add more functionality just to keep up. And although early adopters don’t always win out, for this captive audience, the best products usually do.
(4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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November 21st, 2007 at 12:02 AM
I visited their site today on my iPhone and it looks like they have implemented a new web app design for the main menu and locations which looks pretty cool! When clicked on directions it also opened Google Maps on the iPhone.
January 19th, 2008 at 10:09 AM
Does not work in Washington State.. Lame
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:45 AM
I just read that one of India’s biggest bank, ICICI Bank, has a launched a mobile banking application called iMobile and i understand there are a lot of services working over GPRS and SMS and that it supports NFC.
Vis-a-vis that Bank of America is only a wap application and does not look attractive. Not sure if it is really scalable. May be in US, but if such a solution where to come in other markets where data speeds and connectivity is an issue, then iMobile seems to be the perfect solution.
Can anyone help me out on more information on iMobile?
February 10th, 2008 at 8:39 AM
Awesome! Beats pinching / zooming / scrolling…etc
April 28th, 2008 at 12:33 AM
[…] example: mobile online backing has exploded at the Bank of America since they implemented an iPhone-specific site. Why? Because it works well for the interface. And there are tons of other iPhone-specific sites […]
August 14th, 2008 at 8:26 AM
Trash. Has not worked once. Says, “We were unable to sign you in to Mobile Banking.”
October 16th, 2008 at 5:31 PM
Still doesn’t work in Washington state.
Lame.
Anyone know how to find that?
November 19th, 2008 at 8:27 AM
Yea with a new Blackberry that actually works now, I would love to see this available in Washington State. I sent BOA an e-mail from my account asking for a tentative date in which Mobile banking will be here in WA.
Deric
November 19th, 2008 at 8:31 AM
How do you subscribe to these comments?
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:38 PM
I have an account in CA and never been able to sign in Mobile Banking from iPhone App or Safari browser on iPhone. I am able to enter the passcode and it says “Welcome to Mobile Banking” with an ‘enter’ button. The moment you press that button, it says “We are unable to sign you in” Please visit online banking from desktop or a laptop to resolve this issue. :(. I called Bank of America tech support and waited on line for 30 minutes only to hear “Sorry, we don’t offer tech support for mobile banking”.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:07 AM
I get the same error message “Unable to Sign In” I was on the phone with someone from tech support for over 30 minutes and the outcome was NOTHING. They have no idea why it’s not working, the only answer he kept telling me that “you have to turn on the access in your account”. That turned out to be bull, they tout that it’s automatically available with your account. Love BoA but I wish they would figure out this bug.
February 17th, 2009 at 3:48 PM
I’ve been unable to sign in lately as well using Safari on my iPhone. It used to work fine (Washington state), but for the last several weeks or so, tapping the sign-in button with my Online ID takes me to a blank page instead of the SiteKey picture confirmation. I spoke with BofA customer service about this and he said they’re aware of the problem and are working on it. No timeline or ballpark as to when it might get fixed, unfortunately, but at least they’re aware and working on it.
April 6th, 2009 at 4:33 PM
I just called with the same problem. They can’t seem to help and advised logging into the standard website which actually does work. App kinda hurts, but at least i can do my banking on my iPhone
May 13th, 2009 at 8:29 AM
Same here…does not work….just says “unable to sign in” on my Iphone 3G. I’ve tried clearing history, cache, etc….nothing seems to work and BofA does not have a clue??