Bank of America – Mobile Banking

Posted on by

Bank of AmericaHere’s another sign of the fantastic growth of the mobile web. Even the big commercial banks are getting into the act. Bank of America, the largest US bank has launched a mobile site. Some small banks in this country have mobile sites but this is the first one I’ve seen from one of the big nationwide banks. Citibank’s mobile banking is a Java ME app, not a mobile web site. For mass adoption these things should be on the web as relatively few users will download and install a application on their phones.

The Bank of America mobile site lets users check their balances, pay bills, transfer funds between accounts and find bank and ATM locations. The service is free of charge – other than what you provider charges for data access. As expected for a banking site, security is tight and you must use an “approved browser” to do anything other than search for ATMs and branches. I couldn’t find a list of approved browsers on the bank’s site but the Openwave V7 browser built into my Boost Mobile Motorola i855 seems to work while with Opera Mini I get “For security reasons, your device can’t access Mobile Banking.” Interestingly Barclays, a big UK bank also just launched a mobile site and Barclay’s recommends using Opera Mini or Opera Mobile!

The Bank of America’s mobile banking site is at https://www.bankofamerica.com/mobile/.

Barclays is at www.barclays.mobi/ (the www is required – not in keeping with the W3C’s mobile best practices)!

I don’t have accounts with either bank so I can’t really review these sites. If you’re a Bank of America or Barclay’s customer and have tried their mobile banking, leave a comment and let us know how useful you find it.

Via: OperaWatch and BostonPocketPC

67 thoughts on “Bank of America – Mobile Banking”

  1. Amazing that the comments here about the unavailability of mobile banking for BofA customers in Washington state go back to 2007! and there’s no upgrade in sight! I’ve been recently peeved by BofA’s so called “technology” to no end and if I didn’t have a mortgage with them, I would transfer my banking to Chase within minutes. Instead, I will just transfer some accounts.

    By the way, here’s another example of a botched BofA technology upgrade: they switched over their Countrywide accounts to BofA and sent out a nice brochure about it. However, when I tried to log in, I found that they changed my username and didn’t tell me about it. The brochure also claimed that I would be able to view all my accounts in one site – no such luck. I still have to log into two sites, with two logins and two passwords and the pages also look completely different. I am amazed, to be truthful, that their online banking even works… I’m very dissatisfied and frustrated.

  2. The B of A in washington is still on the Sea first bank computers they have not upgraded them yet. This is what I was told and they had no timeline on when it could even be possible. But I was also told that if I go and open an account in Oregon I would be able to access mobile banking. frustrating!!

  4. I have a Samsung Impression and ATT… I cannot access the bofa.mobi site. I get the “Your device is not supported” error message. Kind of stupid since I am trying to access as a website. Any other Impression users experiencing this?

  5. i just spoke with a customer service specialist for BofA, and she told me that she “heard” mobile banking will be available in the Spring of this year (’09) for Washington and Idaho.

  6. I just talked to BofA customer service at length about the lack of mobile banking in Washington and Idaho and he said it’s because the former Seafirst banks in the Northwest haven’t changed their computer platforms to match the other states. California is on their own platform as well, but it’s compatible with the newer systems. There is no timeline for finishing the conversion. Not even a ballpark. He said it’s a slow process (already in its 9th year or so), and it sounds like technologies/systems are updated in steps, so it’s not necessarily an all-or-nothing thing. It’s really frustrating to me to be lagging so far behind in this technology, especially with no timeline, but at least they’re working on it.

  9. I have a blackberry 8700. I can get in; however, I get an annoying pop up stating the server certificate is not trusted by your handheld. I constantly have to enter continue and when I enter do not ask again,which is a option, the pop returns.

  10. I wanted to let everyone know that at least for my Blackberry 8830, I figured out why I would occassionally get the the “For security reasons your device cannot access mobile banking” page when I tried to login to the BOA Mobile Site.

    Apparently, if you don’t specifically close your browser after browsing websites, and the browser is left running for a while, the BOA mobile site doesn’t like it and will not let you access the sign in page.

    All it takes is a simple Properties -> Close, inside of the browser and then reopen the browser, for the problem to fix itself.

  11. I have a BB Curve and I was having the same BofA error message. I had been able to access my BofA accounts on BB Browser but about two weeks ago it stopped letting me in. I called AT&T Customer Support and was told to:

    1- Power off phone
    2- Remove back cover
    3- Remove SIM card
    4- Use a pencil eraser and gently erase the copper surface of the SIM card
    5- Replace SIM, battery, cover and power on
    6- Go to BankofAmerica.com and voila! I was able to sign in.

    This worked on my BlackBerry and two other co-workers, a third was unsuccessful. Anything is worth a shot until ATT and BofA can get it together and figure it out.

    Good Luck!

  12. I finally got a reply from a IT tech at BofA.
    He told me that Washington and Idaho are not on the same platform as the rest of the states.
    Soooo, if I take my money 50 miles south to Oregon to open the account (even though I live in Washington) my mobile banking should work.
    Stupid if you ask me.

  14. Not available in Washington state is a bad bad thing.
    I just transferred my account from a perfectly good local bank to BofA because their advertisements for mobile banking interested me.
    I opened the account less than 24 hours ago and I will now withdraw all my $ and go back to the little local guys!
    Disappointed in Washington!

  15. Pete
    Oct 3rd, 2007 at 6:43 am
    Blackberry fix: you need to use “Internet Browser”: go browser, general options, default browser should be Internet Browser. Save, close and reopen browser.

    THIS WORKED FOR MY BLACKBERRY 8700. THANKS PETE!!!

  16. Ok. If on a blackberry here’s how to resolve this. Error. Open a browser…( you must have the Blackberry internet) menu options browser config, allow java and popups. Menu save. Power off and pull battery. Put it back in power on. Test.

  17. khawaja ,

    I’m don’t have the settings for you. They are different for every carrier and phone. and I only know the settings for three carriers and two phones.

    You really do have to get the settings from your provider (mobile phone carrier). Look on their wepsite for “gprs settings” or something similar. There’s usually an option to send the settings to your phone.

    For more tips see Solving Opera Mini Connection Problems even if you aren’t using Opera Mini ,it’s a good explanation of how more data works and how to fix it when it breaks.

  18. hi i have tried my best for my browser settings i have gone in default settings butt it says no settings have contact your sevice provider plz send me default configuration settings

  22. I have a samsung blackjackII and am having the same issues – my husband has the blackjack and his accesses it perfectly fine. I have tried everyones suggestions, but nothing is working. Anymore ideas?

  24. One more note for BB Pearl users. When you create a bookmark, it saves the browser information along with it (Internet or Blackberry). This was causing me grief because although my default browser was “Internet”, the bookmark was saved with “Blackberry browser”. So every time I used that Bookmark, I got the “For security reasons…” message.

    To make sure your Bank of America bookmark uses “Internet” browser:

    1) Go to Menu -> Bookmarks
    2) Highlight your Bookmark for Bank of America Mobile
    3) Go to Menu -> Edit Bookmark
    4) In the new menu, scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see the “Browser:” option. Make sure this is set to “Internet Browser”.
    5) Click the Accept button.

    This is fantastic because I can now leave by default browser as “Blackberry”, but I can still access BofA every time because the bookmark automatically sets the browser to “Internet”.

    Thanks to Pete and others who helped clear-up this issue!!!

  25. Thank you John! When I switched to the Blackberry Browser I was able to access the B of A’s mobile site on my 8100 pearl-what a relief-thanks again!

  26. I have the samsung black carbon (d900) with AT&T and I have been successful at getting the internet setup manually through forums, but I cannot access the bofa.mobi. I of coarse get the error “For security reasons your device can not access mobile banking” Anyone know if there is a difference in the settings causing this? It comes with only one browser and I can only change the settings such as the GPRS proxy, ip, and login info.

  27. The only time I have ever seen “For security reasons your device can not access mobile banking” is when I tried to access B of A’s mobile site on the Opera Mini browser.

    If I use the standard BlackBerry browser, the site appears to work just fine.

  28. Interesting thread.

    Lucky Curve users. I use BB 8700c. I have tried different browser, running WML scripts (also unchecking this box). I am using “Internet browser” option from General Properties. But when I go to “browser configuration” I see “Cingular Browser” on the top right.

    Bottom line, I still am not able to make it work.

    Has any one had success with 8700c??

  29. Back again with some more research. Called TMobile Tech support and they added free blackberry data feature, took the battery out and restarted it after few mins. I am now able to see internet browser along with WIFI and Tzone. i am able to access bank of america through internet browser on my wifi. Yahooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Mission Accomplished.

  30. Can you shed some light as to where i should go in my curve and set my curve IE setting to where i can access BOFA using wifi.

    Thanks

  31. Hmm, Most likely the problem is with the user agent of the browser. If only nokia allows us to change the User Agent to report it as “IE” instead of E90. Then you should be able to access the bofa website.

  32. So far what i have researched, it has to do with your WIFI Browser security setting on your curve and TMOBILE tech support can’t figure it out. If you get tmobile internet service and use TZONE browser there is no problem accessing that site. TMobile tech support don’t have enough resources to resolve this issue and they come up with excuses.

  33. So every time I try to long in on my BB Curve it tells me that “For security reasons you can not access at this time” or something to that effect.
    What does this mean?!

  34. I was getting the error For security reasons, your device can’t access Mobile Banking. Gota few questions for those who got black berry curve and were able to get to the page successfully.

    1)Were you accessing http://WWW.BOFA.MOBI through your WIFI home network or through T-MOBILE Internet service?

    2)If you were using WIFI home network, do you still get option to choose from T-Zone, Internet Browser or WIFI Browser.

    I was online lastnite with TMobile Tech support and they asked me to select the Internet Browser and i did’nt had that option on my BB Curve until i asked the rep to add the T Mobile internet service. After adding TMobile internet to my plan i was able to see the internet browser option on my BB Curve. I disabled my WIFI Home network and enable BB Curve to use TMobile internet and i was able to access the page and check account just fine.

    Does that mean that i have to have TMobile internet to access http://www.bofa.mobi

    Any thoughts?????????????????

  35. Bob – wish I had kept reading before I started trying! I did figure it out, however. You have it right. Thanks to all of you for taking a little time to write it out for the rest of us. Never saw a worse coordination between two major corps.. even when they have a financial interest in success! I have Blackberry 8800 access with no probs. now. Thanks again.

  37. Thanks for the Bank of America fix for AT&T based Blackberry 8100 Pearl. I was totally frustrated. The AT&T guys said it wasn’t a problem at their end, though they did say that they don’t specifically support BofA’s online banking. The BofA guys said it wasn’t a problem at their end. Again, for the sake of clarity, to solve it I opened my Browser in my Blackberry 8100. I hit the menu key and selected Options. Under Browser Configuration I tried to change the Browser from Blackberry Browser to Internet Browser, but it wouldn’t save it. I finally realized that instead of Browser Configuration I had to choose “General Properties”. Here I could change the “Default Browser” from Blackberry Browser to Internet Browser. To do so, I had to hit the menu key and press “Change Option”. Then, I hit the menu key again and selected “Save Option”. This time, it saved it and I have been able to access BofA’s mobile banking ever since. Thanks Pete and Scott!

  38. The Fix for Bank of America Mobile site posted on Oct. 3rd by Pete works perfectly for the blackberry pearl. I use Tmobile and there is an option under general properties to select Internet browser. I just tried and I am in. Thanks!!!

  39. Still no access for me a T-mobile 8100 pearl customer,phoenix AZ.I receive the for security reason we cant get in mobile banking message.No option to change browser setting since using t-zones but no problem to access all other http sites.

  40. Blackberry fix: you need to use “Internet Browser”: go browser, general options, default browser should be Internet Browser. Save, close and reopen browser.

  41. I have an RIM 8830 on the Alltel network and get the same “For security reasons your device cannot access mobile banking” frustrating replay. Using the blackberry browser like they say hasn’t made a difference. Has there been any luck yet with getting onto the mobile banking at BofA with a late model Blackberry?

  42. I have cingular/att and mine when ever I try to log in it won’t let me. It times out! I have a blackberry 8100 (pearl).

  43. i was avaible to get one time on bank of america page and from that time every time when i try to login, got msg. for security reson we cant get in mobile banking. i got nokia E-70.

  44. I accidentally stumbled on the B of A site and was actually able to transfer money between accounts using my LG Chocolate phone from Verizon. After the usual frustrations dealing with B of A I was very pleasantly surprised!

    Then I looked for someting similar for CitiBank, but… maybe in the Phillipines.

  45. i as well have been trying for a couple days and i got the error message of “For security reasons your device can not access mobile banking” i have the RIM BB 8100 pearl and on the Cingular/AT&T networkwhich is support for BofA mobile. so im gonna agree with the fact that they haven’t tested each device.

  46. I have been trying for a few days and get the error message “For security reasons your device can not access mobile banking”. I have a RIM 8830 and it is listed as supported. I am on Verizon Wirless but that shouldn’t be a problem since it’s a website. I don’t think they really tested each device.

  47. I experienced the same thing as David. I have a BB Curve and use the Cingular/AT&T network. I anxiously await resolution to this issue as it will further and significantly enhance my mobile web experience / world.

  48. I am a BoA customer with a Blackberry 8700c and received the sam error message as you did. BoA first claimed it was a Cingular problem. After talking to Cingular and RIM, I confirmed that the RIM tech got the same error message on his Blackberry. BoA then told me that, despite listing my phone being listed as supported, I cannot use it yet. I have to wait until I’m prompted to enroll in mobile banking when I’m on their pc-based website. That is contrary to their supposed nationwide rollout and availability.

  49. After trying to sign in: “Mobile Banking is not yet available in your state. We will let you know when it becomes available.” (Washington)

  50. i just used the b of a mobile site over the weekend to transfer funds and to pay a bill. it works great. it is a watered down version of the online site but it workd fine.

Comments are closed.