A bunch of banks owned by Westpac (but not Westpac itself) are about to make sending money to someone else a little easier. St George, BankSA and the Bank of Melbourne are all going to add an option to their mobile banking apps allowing you to send payment to any other mobile phone user.
The option will work on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry. Sending a transfer results in a message to the recipient telling them how to collect their money through a dedicated secure web site (though you’ll still need your BSB and account details).
This will undoubtedly sound familiar to Commonwealth Bank customers, since there’s a similar facility built into the Kaching app the bank launched last year (along with options to pay via Facebook). In my experience that works pretty well, though the notifications it sends are liable to get caught up in spam filters and it requires the sender to communicate directly with the recipient with an access code as well. That’s more secure, but less convenient.
The feature will be rolled out for BankSA and Bank of Melbourne customers from today, while St George customers will see it from June 25.
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