Wellfargo.com bus comes to Valley

MAT-SU -- Step inside the big red bus and be ready to learn all about … online banking? The wellsfargo.com bus, a 45-foot, 26-ton motor coach, spent Monday and Tuesday in the Valley,

providing secure, online access to the Internet to teach customers and employees

of Wells Fargo the latest and greatest about online

banking.

"A few have stopped by that have already been to our online banking site … we just helped them update their passwords and stuff like that," said Jonathan Davis, a Wells Fargo employee who has been traveling with the bus for a little less than a year. "Some have come in and signed up for the first time."

The bus spent Monday at the Wasilla Wells Fargo in the Cottonwood Creek Mall and Tuesday at the Palmer Wells Fargo on Bailey Street. By early Monday afternoon, Davis said that more than 100 people had already stopped by and utilized the state-of-the-art equipment on the bus. He said normally 200 to 300 people will step into the bus on any given day. The bus has traveled for two years and has been to 23 states. It came up to Skagway at the beginning of June and is scheduled to visit 11 Alaska cities before returning to the states for maintenance. Davis said the bus is especially valuable for the employees of Wells Fargo, because it gives them a chance to really learn about how the ins and outs of online banking works.

"We get [employees] involved," said Davis, who works with his boss on a two-week rotating schedule. "The more interactive they get the better they can present [online banking] once we are gone."

Davis said one of this year's main attraction is the new e-bills program, which allows Wells Fargo users to actually view their bill statement from 250 different vendors online, instead of getting the statement in the mail. This, paired with the online billing program, allows a customer to receive, view and pay their bills in one click. Davis said Alaska Airlines is one of the vendors sending their statements through e-bills, and by using online bill pay, Wells Fargo guarantees customers will never have to pay a late charge on a bill.

Realizing there are many who are a little leery of the new payment technology, Wells Fargo created the wellsfargo.com bus to provide training in how to master the art of online bill paying. According to a Wells Fargo press release, more than half of the United States households will view and pay at least one bill online by 2006. To help Alaska get ready for this change in bill paying, Davis said Wells Fargo plans to send the wellsfargo.com bus to Alaska each summer from now on.