We all grew up watching, in some ways, our parents go about running their banking errands. And to many of our young selves, that meant waiting at banks and standing in line at ATMs. We didn’t really know much else of what was happening.

Now it’s our turn to do adult things, so we start doing the banking stuff too: opening our first savings account, receiving our first credit card, paying the bills, transferring money -- y’know, the works.

But banking for us today has changed a whole lot. For the better? I dare say yes. Everything is easier now. Faster and more efficient.

And along the way, these three things have... disappeared:

1. Update passbook

Remember the times where you had to regularly update your passbook to stay on top of your transactions and bank balances?

Unlike an ATM card, passbooks were not something that we could easily shove into our wallets.

Remembering to bring it out was one thing, but when we ransacked the whole house only to realise the passbook’s gone...

Thankfully, we no longer need to worry about losing our passbooks or fear people discovering how much (or how little *sobs*) we have in our bank accounts. Because we don’t use them anymore.

Since we all have our eyes glued to our smartphones 24/7, innovative apps like DBS digibank take banking a step further for us lazy bums by allowing us to track our transactions and log in with JUST. OUR. FINGERPRINT. Super fast, but also super safe.

The app also makes us the first Asians to be able to sneak a peek at our bank balance without having to log in.*sniffs* Our forefathers would have been so proud. Our banking game strong.

2. Physically queueing at bank branches

Our pioneer generation used to have to go to the bank to deposit coins, get new notes for CNY, change their ATM card and, well, do almost everything money-related.

Naturally, bank tellers were their best friends. Then, when POSB launched one of Singapore’s first ATMs in 1974, it changed banking completely.  

Nowadays, it’s hardly odd to say that young Singaporeans have never met a bank teller. But as advanced as internet banking has become, we still do need to step into a bank branch. Sometimes. We just dread the potential queue.  

But in case you don’t already know, you can now queue remotely. That means, there’s no need to be physically present at a branch while waiting for your turn.

All you need to do is request for a queue number through DBS SMS ‘Q’ and be notified when your turn is near. Now you can do other things in the meantime! Like catching Pokemon.

3. Transferring money to friends…later:

When we have meals with our friends, usually, someone pays for it first and the rest of us promises to pay back later.

For that one poor soul, that could mean days/weeks/months/years of waiting for the money to come in, as the rest of us would either need to find an ATM or head home to use iBanking to transfer the money.  

But that was the pre-DBS PayLah! life.

Now, we hardly have to bear the embarrassment of not having enough cash. We rarely have to owe our friends money either (or rather, no more excuse, ahem).

Why? Because apps like DBS PayLah! allow us to transfer small amounts (under $999) of money to our friends -- all we need is their Singapore registered mobile number. No excuse to owe money now, hor.

*****

The way we bank has changed so rapidly over the years, and will continue to do so in the future.

Which is why making banking seamless in our busy everyday lives is really quite important -- that’s what DBS’s new innovation facility, DAX (which stands for DBS Asia X) sets out to do -- bringing together employees, start-ups and entrepreneurs to continue the tradition of making banking more accessible and convenient for us. How? By innovation.

Because that’s what’s most important. So we can go about earning or spending our hard-earned money. Wooooo.

This sponsored post helps ensure Mothership.sg’s writers have enough cash to at least start a bank account. With DBS.

Top image via

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