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Comment by abeyer | Hacker News Reader

In the US, e-deposit of checks is a passable option to avoid fees.

Many banks will take a check deposit by scan or phone camera now, so you can just have someone write a paper check and send the image immediately and deposit it that way.

It's still pretty high-friction, not something you'd typically want to do with a customer, but a reasonable alternative to bank transfer if you don't want to pay the $50.

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> In the US, e-deposit of checks is a passable option to avoid fees.

My bank (credit union) charges a $2 fee for each check I write, regardless of how or where it's deposited. Yes, it's cheaper than a bank transfer, but checks still aren't fee-free for everyone.

Weird, I knew some of the big corp banks did this for their lower tier accounts, but every credit union I've used has had free checking even on the basic no minimum balance accounts. TIL

Switch to another bank or CU. Most do not charge $2 checkwriting fees.

Google Wallet is significantly lower friction than writing out and mobile-depositing a check, at least in my experience.

Last i checked the android app refuses to run on hardware without nfc, even for the features that don't require it. Maybe it's an option if you have the right phone, or if it lets you do payments on desktop. (haven't tried the latter)

I've only tried to use it on a real computer.

it works beautifully on desktop

AFAIK, the Google Wallet app doesn't, anymore, have any features that require or use NFC (tap-and-pay did, but that moved years ago to Android Pay.)

Plus, not only can you do everything "on desktop", you can do it on web generally; the browser version works great on phones.

Good to know...I thought that the classic Wallet app went away entirely, as I recall being forced to "upgrade" it to Android Pay when it came out, and in the process lost the features I actually used, so didn't pay much attention after that.

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