Telephone users have long been accustomed to getting time signals, weather reports, political spiels and horoscopes just by dialing a certain number.
Now a subsidiary of Seattle-First National Bank has figured out a way to permit account holders to let their fingers do the walking through their bank accounts. For the past month, bank customers who have touch-tonal telephones have been able to use them to pay many of their bills, bypassing the bother of writing out checks, addressing envelopes and licking stamps.
The "In-Touch" system is made possible because the bank...