Wells Fargo & Company announced a new service: text banking. Wells Fargo offers its consumer and small business customers both browser- and text-based account access via their mobile devices.
The new service enables customers to connect to their Wells Fargo accounts from a mobile phone through text messaging. Customers first enroll online to activate the text banking service and then simply send a text message to a Wells Fargo-specific short code number, 93557 (WELLS). After sending one of the Wells Fargo Mobile text banking shortcut commands, they will then receive a reply with the requested information. Examples of shortcut commands include:
“bal” for primary account balance
“bal all” for all account balances
“act” for most recent account activity
“help” to receive a list of available text commands as well as the phone number for customer service
Large numbers of consumers are turning to text messaging, also known as short message service (SMS), as a primary means of communication. According to InsightExpress, an online market research firm, 43 percent of 18 to 24 year-olds send text messages daily.
Wells Fargo was the first financial institution to introduce access to banking accounts on the Internet in 1995.
