Verizon Wireless customers who have a BlackBerry Curve 8330, Pearl 8130 or 8830 World Edition can now access their financial information with Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Banking application. Users get the following services: account balance information and transaction history; the ability to transfer funds between accounts at the same financial institution; the convenience of viewing and paying bills when enrolled in their financial institution’s Bill Pay service and the ability to view the last five transactions successfully completed on their mobile device.

Verizon Wireless customers must be account holders of a financial institution that offers Mobile Banking to enroll in the application. Currently Wachovia, Regions, SunTrust, USAA, Synovus, America First Credit Union (AFCU), Arvest, Bancorp South, FirstBank, South Financial and BECU offer the service.

The Mobile Banking application has the following security features: multi-factor authentication including initialization codes and six-digit PIN requirements; lock out after three invalid PIN entries; use of account nicknames instead of account numbers; encrypted transactions; time out of application after two minutes on Choose PIN screen and 10 minutes on other screens; and lost device functionality, which disables the application. In addition, funds can only be transferred between accounts that are set up with online access, and Bill Pay payees cannot be set up or edited on the phone.

To get Mobile Banking, Verizon Wireless customers with the BlackBerry Curve 8330, BlackBerry Pearl 8130 and the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition can go to the Home screen on their handsets and select the BlackBerry(R) Browser icon to go to the VZ Start home page. Once there, click on the Mobile Banking link to download the application. VZ Start home page can also be accessed by going to mobile.vzw.com from the browser. There is no monthly charge for the application, although data charges may apply.