Quite a while ago myself and a bunch of people were treated to a preview of UOB’s mobile banking app. Most banks in Singapore have adopted mobile banking in one way or another. (There are some banks which still haven’t grasped this, or are unable to – and their idea of mobile banking is to make sure you are mobile enough to run from branch to branch).
UOB’s great bell and whistle is to enable users to send cold hard cash to other people, even if they’re not UOB customers, and even if they don’t have an ATM card.
The recipient has to have his/her IC No. registered in your list of transferees on your internet banking first, so you can’t add someone on the fly and send them money. This puts paid to my main concern that loan sharks and other undesirable people might use this to their advantage.
The one scenario where sending cash could be really useful is when you forget your wallet, together with cash and ATM card, and you really really need to buy something before going home. You just have to send yourself money. Problem solved.
The blog Fash-Eccentric has outlined the steps needed to do this, so I won’t go into the details.
What’s quite fun to play with, however, is the app’s augmented reality UOB card promotions finder. If you’re out about town, you simply turn on the feature, use your phone like a scanner to locate eateries with UOB discounts:
