Announcing The Wells Fargo vSafe Service!
October 1, 2008 marks an exciting time for our company. Today, Wells Fargo announced the national availability of the Wells Fargo vSafeSM service, a personal online safe for Wells Fargo customers and the first storage solution of its kind from a major financial institution.
"Firsts" are not new to Wells Fargo. Thirteen years ago we were the first financial institution to introduce access to banking accounts on the Internet. Ever since then, we’ve been listening to our customers and developing innovative, online ways to meet and exceed their needs.
Innovation is one of Wells Fargo’s great strengths — going back 157 years to our founding as a banking and express company with stagecoaches that went five miles an hour and carried customers’ valuables in our legendary strong boxes (which were also referred to as treasure boxes). From the moment we opened our doors in 1852, we were in the business of safekeeping our customers’ money and information. In those early days in the West, money was in the form of gold. So money along with family documents such as birth and marriage certificates, deeds, passports, and financial records, were transported by stagecoach in the oak treasure boxes sealed with iron locks. These treasure boxes were then safeguarded inside Wells Fargo’s safes and vaults, often made of steel several inches thick and weighing tons, all across the western United States.
The new Wells Fargo vSafe service extends our rich heritage of safety and security into the electronic world of the 21st century—as we protect and secure customers’ assets and information. While grandmother’s diamond ring can’t be physically placed inside Wells Fargo vSafe, a photograph of it can be uploaded for insurance purposes—along with 1000s of electronic copies of other important information.
Customers told us that they wanted to be able to organize and store copies of their most important information from a secure location that’s available around-the-clock. Through the Wells Fargo vSafe service, customers can remotely access, reproduce and review their records if the originals become inaccessible or lost. Our vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. We also want to serve them anytime, anywhere to satisfy those needs with innovation solutions. We believe this service helps provide even more peace-of-mind for our customers in today’s light-speed electronic world.
Linking to non-Wells Fargo websites
Comments
I'm curious: Does it do you any good to have a digital copy of important documents rather than the original, that may well be notarized, have water marks, official seals, etc.? I still rely on my good old fashioned safe deposit box at my Wells Fargo store.
Posted by: Megan | December 1, 2008 10:51 AM
Thanks for asking. As it happens, we address this very question in the FAQs for Wells Fargo vSafeSM. You should never throw away the original versions of your important documents. Your Wells Fargo vSafe account should only be used to store copies of important records for you to use as a reference.
Electronic copies of certain signed paper documents - such as wills, deeds, trusts, notarized paper documents, stock certificates, passports, and powers of attorney - do not carry the same legal effect as signed paper originals, which is why you should always keep and protect your signed original documents. However electronic versions of some documents - such as brokerage and bank account statements - usually do have the same legal standing as their paper counterparts. If in doubt, always consult your attorney.
Even when the electronic documents don't have the same legal effect as originals, many of our customers find it handy to have a secure copy available for reference from any Internet connection. In addition, if one of those original documents is inadvertently lost or destroyed, a copy can sometimes be used to help establish the contents of the original.
So, by all means, keep your faithful Wells Fargo Safe Deposit Box. But consider using Wells Fargo vSafe as an efficient way to have copies of your important documents available for you to access and review from wherever you can access the Internet.
Posted by: Michele, Vice President, Internet Services Group | December 2, 2008 03:15 PM
Curious to know if Wells Fargo stores these documents in their own data centers which would meet the necessary standards required for security compliance or is Wells partnering with a 3rd party online storage provider?
If the data is stored in encrypted format, who stores the key to that?
Posted by: rh | December 4, 2008 08:51 AM
Thanks for your question. All Wells Fargo vSafe data is stored at Wells Fargo. At Wells Fargo we’ve been earning the trust of our customers for financial services since 1852. Today, we remain as committed as ever to keeping your privacy and personal information safe. Wells Fargo employs some of the strongest forms of security commercially available for use on the Web today, including:
• 256-bit encrypted file storage
• Regular backups with geographically diverse servers
• Multiple layers of security
In fact, the Wells Fargo vSafe service offers the same security features as Wells Fargo Online® banking including individualized passwords, timed log-offs, firewalls, and continuous system surveillance and technology updates. Our two-factor authentication and encrypted file storage protects Wells Fargo vSafe customers’ highly confidential and personal information. Our proven back-up systems are designed and tested to keep data safe and accessible. In addition, The Wells Fargo vSafe service provides an additional layer of security through Advanced Access, a multi-factor authentication security tool that grants access to a customer’s Wells Fargo vSafe account via a unique, randomly generated numeric passcode. These multi-layer security safeguards are part of Wells Fargo’s commitment to being a leader in online security. I would also like to refer you to this location on our site for further details about Wells Fargo vSafe security:
https://www.wellsfargo.com/wfonline/wellsfargovsafe/security
Posted by: Michele, Vice President, Internet Services Group | December 9, 2008 11:42 AM
What is the fee for opening and maintaining a Wells Fargo vSafe??
Posted by: Carol | December 15, 2008 09:50 PM
Hi Carol,
The first 30 days of the Wells Fargo vSafe service are free, and then your monthly cost is based on the amount of storage space you choose. As of January 1, 2009, the Storage Plans are as follows:
• The Base Plan, which holds 1 Gigabyte (GB) of storage space, is $4.95 per month. As a guideline, this service would enable you to store either approximately 10,000 Microsoft Word documents; 5,000 scanned pages; 2,000 Portable Document Format (i.e. PDF) files; 650 digital photos; or 200 music files. Or, a combination of these.
• The Upgrade Plan, which holds 3 Gigabytes (GB) of storage space, is $9.95 per month. The Upgrade Plan would enable you to store approximately 30,000 Microsoft Word documents.
• The Premium Plan, which holds 6 Gigabyes (GB) of storage space, is $14.95 per month. This service would enable you to store approximately 60,000 Microsoft Word documents.
These Storage Plans are also listed in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) at www.wellsfargo.com/help/faqs/wellsfargovsafe . Please note that Wells Fargo
does reserve the right to change the storage plans and pricing without prior notice.
In addition, Wells Fargo supports Wells Fargo vSafe customers by phone. You can also choose to have certain monthly Wells Fargo account statements uploaded automatically for your convenience.
Posted by: Michele, Vice President, Internet Services Group | January 5, 2009 10:19 AM