Telephone banking USA 1973

Historical background

On 4 June 1973, a new home computer service with touch-tone telephones and a voice output system was launched in Seattle. The service, called In-Touch, was offered by a start-up company, Telephone Computing Service, a subsidiary of Seattle-First National Bank. Residential customers paid $6.50 for various data processing services, including automatic bill payment by phone, income tax preparation and operating as a computer. For the monthly fee, subscribers received 100 minutes of usage and paid four cents per minute. The system used all twelve buttons on the touch-tone telephone. Templates on the buttons instructed subscribers to use the system. Each user had a personal telephone-computer connection. There were six main services: money transfer for billing, family budgeting (telephone data entry and weekly mailing), payroll tax processing, calendar reminder service, household record keeping, and calculator.

Introduced in 1973, in-touch telephone banking revolutionised the way people interacted with their banks. This innovation allowed customers to conduct basic banking transactions over the phone, such as checking their account balance, transferring funds between accounts and paying bills without having to visit a branch.

Before the introduction of telephone banking, customers had to visit a bank branch during business hours to complete these tasks, which could be inconvenient and time-consuming. In-touch telephone banking offered greater convenience and flexibility, allowing customers to manage their finances from the comfort of their home or office and outside of regular banking hours.

This innovation laid the foundation for the digital banking services we take for granted today and paved the way for online and mobile banking platforms that have further transformed the way we manage our money.