Very cool new feature from Mint.  Few banks have done this, and Clairmail offer this service, but with Mint customers can get it for any bank.

Text Mint to See if You’ve Been Naughty or Nice

Starting today, text BAL or BALANCE to MyMint (696-468) from any checkout line in America and we’ll send you the balances in all of the checking, savings and investment accounts you track in your Mint account.  Just think of it, no more embarrassing “your credit card has been declined” moments.

This typifies the disruptive forces at play and during these tough times, I would expect just as we saw following the dot.com bust, we will see more of these new services chipping away at functions that could have been implemented at a bank.  This will only serve to make the new services that much more appealing.