U.S. Bancorp, others team with Visa on new Internet service.

U.S. Bancorp and eight other banks have signed up with Visa to offer so-called digital wallets to online shoppers looking to save time at virtual checkout counters. A digital wallet electronically stores customer credit card data, digital receipts, user I.D.s, passwords and shipping addresses. It securely transmits the data to online merchants with one click of a mouse and can even notify users of merchant specials. The free service is designed to speed up Internet purchasing. Without it, customers must type and submit pages of electronic data to each online merchant. Banks issue the digital wallets, store customer wallet data on bank servers and issue customers wallet passwords and user IDs. To access their digital wallet, customers log on through their bank_s Web site and select the appropriate credit card icon and the data they wish to transmit to a vendor. Visa tested the service for six months before launching it this week. U.S. Bancorp officials said their customers can tap the service early next year. Other bank participants include Bank One, Capital One and Providian Financial_s Aria.com.