About this video
Sal deposits a $59.72 reimbursement check using a mobile banking app. He checks the details first, enters the amount, photographs the front, endorses the back with his signature and 'for mobile deposit' (plus bank and account number to be extra careful), photographs the back, and confirms. He notes the money may take a few days to become available.
You'll be able to
- list the ways to deposit a check: at a branch, an ATM or by mobile deposit.
- describe the steps of a mobile check deposit.
- explain how to endorse a check safely for mobile deposit.
- explain why deposited money might not be available immediately.
Key words
- Deposit
- Putting money, such as a check, into your bank account.
- Reimbursement
- Being paid back for money you spent, for example on work supplies.
- Mobile deposit
- Depositing a check by taking photos of it with your bank's phone app.
- Endorse
- To sign the back of a check, showing you are the person depositing it.
Transcript
- [Instructor] What we're going to talk about in this video is depositing a check. And so let's say that I had to go buy some supplies, I did it with my own money. And then later I went to my employer, Khan Academy, and said, "Hey, those supplies I got were for work."
And then the finance department looks at it and says, "Yes, that's a legitimate work expense," and they reimburse it back to me, or they write a check to pay me back for the supplies that I spent on, the $59.72 So, this right over here is the reimbursement check.
And so the next question is, how do I deposit? Well, there's many ways that you can deposit a check. You can go to the branch, you can go to an ATM, but more and more people are using online deposit, usually from their phone. That's how I deposit checks these days.
And so what you're going to want to do is take this check, first of all, just to make sure that everything looks right. It's the right amount that you were expecting, it is indeed to you, everything matches. So, once you do there, you'll go to your banking app, and on your phone.
And every app's going to be different, but let's say that this is the app right over here. This is my phone, although I don't think phones have that button there anymore, or many don't. So, that's my phone screen. There's usually going to be someplace, there's going to be a menu that says "deposit checks".
Now, you click on that, and it's usually going to go to some type of a screen that makes you fill in. I'm not going to redraw the phone every time. It'll make you draw the amount, and it's not necessarily gonna be in this order. It'll say, "which account your depositing to?"
Or, sometimes you've already gone from that account, so they might not ask that. They'll say, many times, they might ask things about the date, et cetera, et cetera. But they're definitely going to ask the amount that you're going to deposit. And then there'll be a button where you say, "Okay, I'm ready to deposit."
At that point, it'll open up, or at least the ones that I've seen lately, it'll open up an app. And then you turn your phone sideways, and it's essentially going to take a picture. So, it's ready to take a picture of your check. And it'll have a box here that's about the same proportions as a check.
And what you do is you point it at your check. And right when your check right about fills this box, it's going to click and then take that. And that'll be the front of the check. And then they'll do it again for the back of the check. I don't want to have to draw this phone every time, but I'm going to do it.
So, the back of the check. Now, this is a key thing to keep in mind. Before you take a picture of the back of the check, and usually the app will prompt you to do it, they'll prompt you to make sure you've endorsed the check. Now, what does that mean? Well, if you flip over the check, so this right over here, let me move that around.
So, that right over there, that's the top of the back of the check, which you will see. And you, just to be careful, you want to take some precautions. You could just sign it. So, you know, hey, that's my signature. But you also want to make sure that it's clear, that it's only for mobile deposit.
And if you really want to be really careful, you can say "for mobile deposit". Sometimes you could say First, whatever, you know, whatever your bank is, First Republic, Bank of America, Chase mobile deposit. And if you want to be really careful, you could say "into account", "into account number", and then, you know, whatever, "9876-54321".
And so it would be very hard for someone to later take this check and do something shady with it because it's very clear where you are actually depositing it. But once you do this, and then on when you go take the picture of the back of the check. So, let me, so when you take a picture of the back of the check right over here, all you're writing is going to be on that end, probably, or it might be on the other end here, and it'll take a picture.
And then it'll usually take you to some screen where the goal is to confirm, and then you would've deposited. Now, it's important to keep in mind that that money might not be available immediately. So, sometimes it takes a few days for it to fully process and for it to be available.
They sometimes will give you credit for it, or they'll say it's in process, so you know you deposited it, but you might not be able to access the amount immediately, depending on the different policies of your bank.
Video © Khan Academy, used under CC BY-NC-SA. Watch on Khan Academy. Puzzicle is not affiliated with Khan Academy.