the announcement today that Citizens Bank will be installing hundreds of
talking ATM's throughout Pennsylvania encouraged me to share this post I
saw on the JFW list tonight.  For those VICUG's working on ATM and
banking access projects, it is reports like those from Jeff below that
demonstrate the impact and effectiveness of our efforts so employed blind
persons can live fully independently in our community.  As Jeff
describes, we can live today what some call the future.

Kelly




From: "Wheatley, Jeff" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sunday, October 06, 2002 8:24 AM



After years of depending on my wife to keep the books, I have recently
been investigating options for me to take over most/all of this task.
What I have found is that the on-line banking technology has come a very
long way. Most banks and Credit Unions offer on-line access to account
transaction details, support MS Money and Quicken download and offer
electronic bill payment services. Web based banks have also been on the
seen for a few years now and have the on-line banking function down to a
science. Because these services are Web based, the JFW 4.5 Web features
give me very nearly equivalent access and control of account information
as my wife who can see. Here are some of the items I am using:

- NetBank.com as my new bank; there Web works extremely well with JFW
4.5, they have a very rich set of on-line services and pay better rates
on their checking and money market accounts than I have found elsewhere.
- I can use direct deposit for both my pay check and my office expense
reports. - I can use bill payment and presentment services to
electronically initiate payments to essentially anyone. Certain vendors
are set up to actually present an electronic bill via NetBank. I can view
and pay the bill on-line. In other cases, I must either pay a fixed
amount (for cable TV, DSL, etc.) or must call the vendor to obtain the
current month's balance due before paying them electronically. - For some

vendors, I set up direct payment; they are authorized to withdrawal the
month's due balance directly from my checking account. I can see the
transaction on-line or in my quicken download. - I use a Visa debit card
when out at stores or restaurants. Here, I must keep track to some level
of the balance until the items post and I can see them on-line. - With
talking ATM machines slowly becoming available, I can also get cash
completely independently.

I am just getting this set up now, so there may be unanticipated
glitches. At the moment, however, it looks like I should be able to fully
take over the book keeping effort by leveraging the on-line services.

Just a couple of years ago, JFW's Web function would have made this a
major chore. JFW 4.5 makes this kind of access very smooth...

Later, Jeff


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