This was written a while ago, and more of the Canadian Banks have made iPad compatible banking applications, however, some still lag behind. All banking apps will work on an iPad, but they may only run in iPhone-only mode. This will make them look crappy, and not take advantage of all the extra screen space an iPad offers.
A while back I purchased an iPad for myself to see if I could “run†my small business (yes, this web site is a small business, stop snickering) on an iPad. I have learned a fair amount about the apps on the iPad and such, but I have also learned that for some odd reason many different apps only have iPhone compatible versions.
For those unfamiliar, you can run iPhone compatible apps on your iPad, however, they only run in Portrait Mode (short across top, longer on the side) and it looks pretty clunky (and most likely, if anything goes wrong, you are not going to get any customer support).
Whilst attempting to figure out how things work, I tripped across a couple of interesting issues with the Canadian Banks and their “appsâ€:
- TD has an iPad compatible app, as does Tangerine bank, and EQ Bank haven’t tested to see if the scan cheques capability works on either app
- Simplii, Capital One and Amex all have iPhone apps, but nothing that runs on an iPad, currently
- For those of you curious this site is supposed to be iPad compatible too.
Having iPhone compatible apps is fun, and convenient, an iPad version with a few more features would help consumers more (although you would be banking over very unsafe WiFi networks).
How did I deal with this shortcoming? I tweeted about it (naturally):
Amazing stuff. Boomer and Echo pointed out that ten years ago I wouldn’t be making these complaints, but I had a retort for that as well:
No answers to my tweets (yet), aside from TD favoriting my comment about how their app did work with an iPad.
This was written on an iPad using Microsoft Word, and OneDisk to store it, which was then transferred to my web site, convoluted, but it works (for now).
Do you use your Tablet for on-line banking? How about your Smart Phone?
I also don’t use my phone when payment and banking online. I direct go to the bank to pay any transaction only. If I don’t have any choice or busy to go the bank that’s the time I use my laptop in doing online.
I hear your paranoia, and I condone it. 🙂
Guess I’m still in the dark ages…I don’t use my phone or tablet for banking/payments. I use my laptop at home for internet banking. My current phone is a flip, so it can’t do anything….eventually I’ll upgrade to a smart phone, but even then I’m leary of doing anything financial on it.
I know smartphones are targets for pickpockets….the thought of everything together on a device that can be hacked or taken disturbs me. People I know don’t have antivirus on their device (but will keep the laptop/computer up-to-date).
It also raises the issue of how secure is your connection. If it’s at home, okay. How are you accessing while away — using your cell, or public wifi?
Guess I’ll stay old school for now, and use the computer at home for internet banking, and use the chip & pin or tap & pay with the card while shopping. If a card gets lost, I can report it and use another, instead of losing everything with the phone.
All excellent points! The flip phone is cool, nothing wrong with that, and all of your security concerns are valid (don’t let anyone say otherwise). Yes, I have anti-virus on my mobile devices too (but I am pretty darn paranoid).
You can use the Tangerine app to take a photo of your cheque and deposit it using your iPad, if that’s what you’re asking. I do it fairly often. I’m not the best at holding the iPad steady so that the cheque is in sharp focus though. It’s easier with an iPhone camera. (My husband has no trouble with either one.)
Yup, that is what I meant, good to know.
BMO has just recently come out with an APP that works great for online banking that I use on a daily basis.
I also have My TFSA and my RRSP on the BMO InvestorLine APP.
Find them to be very functional and very easy to use on my IPAD.
Not clunky at a all.
I’m an Andrid user so you an imagine how annoyed I get when apps are iOS only.