OMG I just read this entire thread and holy cow I have a headache and I'm missing 30 minutes I'll never get back.
Why is everyone here so F'ing hard headed? All of you. As a an ex-IBM employee who used to have a bit to do with security and an ex-Banking and Finance major in college I'm probably a fraction more informed than the average Joe (but only a fraction). My opinion:
Is IAV safe? Almost assuredly.
Would I use it? Absolutely not.
Why? Because someone else has your banking logon.
Do they store it or have it forever? Nope
Does that mean they can use it? Almost assuredly not.
Then why is it a big deal? Because once you give that up if someone else gets in your account you're SOL. It doesn't matter if the IAV was hacked or someone looked over your shoulder and saw you login you intentionally provided your banking login and you are therefore 100% legally at fault.
Will a bank push that if it happens? Probably not
Then why is it a big deal? Because it could happen and there's no reason to use it instead of micro deposits.
Are microdeposits any safer? Probably not
Then why is it better? Because it doesn't create a liability for you
Is Dave/Sentry/Dwolla/Whoever being irresponsible offering IAV as an option? Absolutely not
Should you stay away from people who offer IAV as an option? Probably not
When I was in the IT world we dealt a lot in risk management, especially in building clients (workstations, PCs, laptops, etc to the non-techies). So you're constantly looking for risk and how to mitigate it and eventually you start doing it with everything. Interestingly my brothers and I recently bought an apartment building and I'm always the one noticing things we need to change to mitigate risk that neither of them ever notice. Anyway, IAV is probably safe, but the risk to you as a person is in how your bank would hold you accountable if you used it and then were a victim of someone cleaning your account out. That's really the only reason to think about not doing it. The likelihood of that happening is fairly close to non-existent so I can certainly understand why many people would have no issue doing it. I also don't see any reason to be so over the top holyshitthisisevilhorribleyouregoingtohellforevenofferingit though.
There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind