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USAA offers banking, insurance and investing via mobile

Financial services company USAA has introduced mobile technology to let members meet their banking, insurance and investment needs via Web-enabled phones and PDAs.

With the USAA mobile service, members can view account history, pay bills, transfer funds, view transfer activity, check account balances, request insurance documentation, check stock prices and place trades with their handset. Members can log on to access the new services with their mobile or computer browser at http://mobile.usaa.com.

"Mobile banking is an extension of Internet banking, and well over 50 percent of our customers are doing that, and many of those people are primed to do mobile banking as well," said Jeff Dennes, executive director of mobile and money movement for USAA.

"To market to those folks, we're taking the online banking experience and bringing it to mobile," he said. "You can see everything on the mobile site that you can online."

USAA is a provider of financial planning, insurance, investments and banking products to members of the U.S. military and their families. Of its 6.4 million members, more than 30 percent are active-duty soldiers.

USAA claims that it is the first company in the industry to let its members obtain insurance documentation via PDA and invest through mobile. The company's mobile services are compatible with all wireless carriers and any Internet-enabled handset.

One feature allows members to request their insurance card and get it via email or fax. They can get it sent directly to their BlackBerry and use the card then and there, showing it to a police officer or to renew their auto registration.

"We have some members who skipped over the Internet banking phase and go right to mobile banking," Mr. Dennes said. "This is a great opportunity to get them to do self-service banking that they haven't done before via their mobile device."

In addition to its mobile Internet site, USAA has partnered with Firethorn to provide members with the option of downloading a smart tool application to their mobile phone for immediate access to their USAA bank accounts.

USAA will market the mobile app via its Web site, email or mail, whichever way members decide they prefer to be contacted.

Members using a slow Internet connection while attempting to access the Web site at http://www.usaa.com from their computer's browser will now automatically be given the option of loading the mobile.usaa.com mobile site, which is lighter on content and faster.

A surprising finding is that 60 to 70 percent of the logins to USAA's mobile site are coming from iPhone users.

"They're tech-savvy, early-adopters," Mr. Dennes said. "The iPhone really lends itself to the mobile Internet. BlackBerry users and others are still not there, because the experience is not as good."

USAA recently reached a milestone when the millionth member, a soldier stationed in Kuwait, logged on to its mobile site.

"When our members are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, the bandwidth is very slow, and surfing the Internet can be cumbersome, so we're directing them to log on via mobile, which is faster for them," Mr. Dennes said.

Starting July 18, USAA members can text keyword BAL to short code MYUSAA (698722) to get the balance of their checking, savings and credit card accounts sent to their mobile device.

"Our membership is very mobile," Mr. Dennis said. "Many are serving active duty all over the world, and they have very little time to sit down at a computer to do personal transactions.

"Now almost all consumers are walking around with a cell phone, and having the ability to do transactions wherever they are in the world brings huge value to them," he said.