Samantha Rose Hunt25 March 2009, 10:00 PM
Commonwealth Bank is offering full-functionality mobile banking. And for once, it's not just for the iPhone!
Commonwealth Bank has officially announced the launch of its mobile internet banking service which is available via any internet ready mobile phone. Customers can now log into their NetBank account by visiting
netbank.com.au/mobile.
The next generation banking service allows customers to transfer funds to third party bank accounts, pay their bills via BPAY, check account balances, review future and past transactions, view current applications with the bank, view CommSec trading balances, and locate the nearest bank branch or ATM if their phone has GPS.
The service still relies on SMS security, which provides a secondary channel of authentication. Admittedly if a thief has your phone handset in hand, it is unlocked, and he has managed to log into your netbanking through the phone's browser, the SMS authentication may not help a great deal.
ANZ is the other bank that provides mobile phone internet banking, with a full functionality service available for iPhone customers and a reduced functionality version for users of other mobile phones. Westpac also has internet banking for iPhone, and says it should work on many other handsets, though it hasn't formally tested them.
NAB is lagging behind the other banks significantly in its mobile functionality, offering only SMS-based service with balance checks and transfers to a customer's own accounts. It is also costly to use, with a fee for every SMS sent.
Suncorp says within the next year, it will have an iPhone-based version of its internet banking.
Above: the new Commonwealth Bank mobile netbank on the iPhone.
... and on Nokia, which is admittedly much less visually impressive, but at least shows that you don't need to have a whiz-bang smartphone in order to use the service.