Is a cheque always upside down when you deposit it using an Android tablet?

Astronought

I had great difficulty today in depositing a cheque using the banking apps on the two tablets that myself and partner own, as on both differing makes of android tablet and both differing banking apps it would only show the image upside down, making it very difficult to position the tablet to take a decent image of the cheque as I had to do the opposite of what I was seeing.

I tried setting the tablet's auto-rotate to both off and on, but that had zero affect regardless of how I twisted the tablet. I did eventually get it to take a decent cheque image, but I wondered whether other people have this issue and have just got used to it or is there an option somewhere that would cure this as I'll otherwise probably just go to my not-so-local bank to deposit the next cheque I receive.

For info, I was using the Natwest and Lloyds apps and whilst my tablet is fairly old, my partner's tablet is a two month old Google Pixel tablet and so is on recent software. Oh and neither of us have smartphones, we both just use simple mobiles when we are out and about, so no apps can be downloaded onto them.

Many thanks for any assistance.

--- Edited to add that it's just the bank apps that show an upside down image, e.g. the Camera app shows everything as you would expect.

PRAISETHESUN

I might be misunderstanding the issue, but surely you could just rotate the cheque 180 degrees on the surface you're taking the photo on to make it right side up? Or is there an option in the banking app the rotate the photo you've uploaded?

ForumUser7

Astronought said:

I had great difficulty today in depositing a cheque using the banking apps on the two tablets that myself and partner own, as on both differing makes of android tablet and both differing banking apps it would only show the image upside down, making it very difficult to position the tablet to take a decent image of the cheque as I had to do the opposite of what I was seeing.

I tried setting the tablet's auto-rotate to both off and on, but that had zero affect regardless of how I twisted the tablet. I did eventually get it to take a decent cheque image, but I wondered whether other people have this issue and have just got used to it or is there an option somewhere that would cure this as I'll otherwise probably just go to my not-so-local bank to deposit the next cheque I receive.

For info, I was using the Natwest and Lloyds apps and whilst my tablet is fairly old, my partner's tablet is a two month old Google Pixel tablet and so is on recent software. Oh and neither of us have smartphones, we both just use simple mobiles when we are out and about, so no apps can be downloaded onto them.

Many thanks for any assistance.

--- Edited to add that it's just the bank apps that show an upside down image, e.g. the Camera app shows everything as you would expect.

I've had similar on an iPad with the bank apps only. Move the iPad left, the camera moves right etc. Move the iPad up, the image moves down. Though I think the image was displayed the right way up. Quite odd really.

boingy

Can't help with the Android one but my iPad also does the "up is down" thing. I discovered that it only does it if I hold the device in landscape orientation, which is the way most people would choose for a cheque. If I use the iPad in portrait orientation everything is fine. Makes no sense at all!

Astronought

PRAISETHESUN said:

I might be misunderstanding the issue, but surely you could just rotate the cheque 180 degrees on the surface you're taking the photo on to make it right side up? Or is there an option in the banking app the rotate the photo you've uploaded?

Unfortunately as per ForumUser7 below, everything still seems to be the opposite, i.e. moving the tablet left moves the image right, moving it up makes the image move down etc, so turning the cheque around doesn't get around the disorientation of how to move the tablet to get the image into the centre.

ForumUser7 said:

I've had similar on an iPad with the bank apps only. Move the iPad left, the camera moves right etc. Move the iPad up, the image moves down. Though I think the image was displayed the right way up. Quite odd really.

Yes that sounds very similar.

boingy said:

Can't help with the Android one but my iPad also does the "up is down" thing. I discovered that it only does it if I hold the device in landscape orientation, which is the way most people would choose for a cheque. If I use the iPad in portrait orientation everything is fine. Makes no sense at all!

I think I tried every version of auto-rotate on and off, and holding the tablet in landscape and portrait, both with the tablet the right way round and with it upside down, but unfortunately they all resulted in the same issue for me.

It just seems very odd that banking apps on at least some android tablets and ipads have such a weird issue.

Astronought

A bit of good news as I've found that the Santander App will show the cheque the right way up and moving the tablet moves the image as I would expect, so I'll just use that the next time a cheque turns up that needs paying in. Unfortunately the Natwest and Lloyds apps still show images the wrong way round and give the disorienting effect of the tablet movement not corresponding to what is happening to the image, but I can ignore that now.

Barkin

FWIW I use both the Lloyds & Natwest apps, and they both work as expected i.e. not inverted as for yourself. 

Sorry - no idea why that might be.