Your personal assistant is getting smarter every day. Alexa can now run some of your financial errands as well.
Another feather in the cap of Amazon Echo added recently. Capital One, one of the American financial giants has joined hands with Amazon Echo. All those who possess a savings account, checking account or a credit card with Capital One, can now ask Alexa to update them about their account balances, as well as their recent account transactions. Besides, Alexa can also find out the upcoming due date for the payment of the pending credit card bills and make the payment on your command.
Oh! Yes, pleasantly, though, not only Echo but this skill is duly accessible to those using Alexa via Fire TV and the newly introduced Echo Dot Speaker.
Wondering how to activate this skill on your Amazon Echo? Let me help you with that:
- Open the Alexa App
- Tap skills in the menu and search for Capitol One
- Enable the Capitol One skill and follow the instructions to enter your Capital One username and password.
- Once logged in you will be asked to punch a 4 digit verification code (Numbers Only)
- You are good to go now.
- In case you are willing to update the verification key, you will have to disable and then re-enable the capital one skill on the app.
Capital One has candidly stated that your banking credentials are not shared with Amazon or any third party whatsoever. However, on any occasion, if you would like to begin a session with Alexa you will need to punch in your verification code. Once you speak out your verification code to Alexa, the session will be locked up for 5 minutes. After that session will expire and you will be required to tell the verification code again.
Now every time you would like to check your credit card payment due date all you have to say is “Alexa, ask Capital One how soon is my credit card payment due?” Besides, if you find out that the due date is approaching soon, you can even ask her to pay your bills right away. All you need to say is, “Alexa, ask Capital One to make my credit card payment.” And it is done.
The verification code feature is going to be enabled by default. However, if you think you are in a safe environment, and you do not need to bypass yet another stage of verification, you can readily disable the option of the verification code. However, the best practice would be to keep the verification step enabled all the time.
Still, the question here is of the safety of your hard earned and money, and it is better not to take chances. Remember that you do not have to punch in the verification code but speak it out loud. Hence, that in itself creates a lot of room for doubt and worry.
