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A new service launched by Wells Fargo & Co. offers an inexpensive option for securely storing electronic versions of personal documents such as wills, deeds, tax documents, medical records, passports or even family photos.

Iowa is among approximately 18 states in which Wells Fargo has rolled out its vSafe service, which it will introduce in additional states by mid-September.

“Customers today are more accustomed to using their personal computers to store data,” said Scott Johnson, Wells Fargo’s regional president for Iowa and Illinois. “To me, this is just a natural step in having a secure place to store data, and having access to it 24 hours a day.” Approximately 60 percent of Wells Fargo customers use electronic banking.

Johnson said he believes Wells Fargo is one of the first major banks in the country to make such a service available to its retail customers, as opposed to only their high-net-worth clients.

The bank is offering a free 30-day trial. After that, the cost for a basic 1-gigabyte account is $4.95 per month; customers can obtain up to 6 gigabytes of storage for less than $15 per month. One gigabyte is enough storage for about 10,000 text documents. The service uses the same layers of security as Wells Fargo’s online banking system, and requires a two-step authentication process to log in.

John Sorensen, president and CEO of the Iowa Bankers Association, said he’s not aware of any other institutions offering a similar service yet in the state.

“I think it’s a natural for banks to provide that kind of service

to customers,” he said. “They’ve always been a source for safekeeping documents for customers. It would seem to be natural for banks to do the same with electronic documents.”