Telephones Can Now Be Used to Shop and Pay Bills : Telecommunications: Two new services also enable subscribers without computers to receive electronic mail and purchase groceries without leaving their homes.

SAN JOSE — Telephone users who don’t own computers can now shop, pay bills and, in some cases, read the news or exchange electronic messages from home through two low-cost services announced Tuesday.

Like cable television companies, both services provide the equipment--a special telephone in one case and a terminal that hooks up to a home phone in another--and charge customers a basic monthly fee.

“There are lots of people who want interactive services, so they can save time and money on everyday chores, like paying bills,” said William Gorog, chief executive and chairman of US Order of Herndon, Va., which makes the ScanFone device.

Both services, which each charge a $9.95 monthly fee after installation, are debuting in the San Francisco Bay Area, where tens of companies have lined up to participate. Both services have been test-marketed outside California and plan to expand nationally if they catch on.

The ScanFone, which is the simpler device, lets users order groceries from Safeway Stores, conduct financial transactions through BankAmerica Corp. and order items by mail from a specialized catalogue.

The ScanFone has a built-in credit card scanner and comes with a light pen for reading bar codes for grocery or mail order items. Safeway, which provides a catalogue with 6,000 items and their bar codes, even delivers the goods--for another $9.95.

To pay bills, for example, the ScanFone issues a personal list with special bar codes for separate bills, from house payments to utilities. The user scans the bar code for a bill with the light pen, then uses the ScanFone’s key pad to enter the amount and the date to be paid. Bills are deducted directly from the user’s bank account and itemized on the customer’s monthly bank statement.

The 101 On-Line Inc. machine, a 10-pound computer terminal with an 8-inch black-and-white screen, hooks up to a home phone to provide a wider array of interactive services. Some cost extra money, ranging from 5 cents to 50 cents for each on-line minute.

Subscribers are also charged an enrollment fee of $20 and must submit a refundable deposit of $50.

The system is based on Minitel, an interactive service developed 20 years ago in France that now sits in 20% of homes in that country. Like ScanFone, it can be used to order groceries, buy through the mail and pay bills. But commands are typed in; the machine doesn’t have high-tech devices such as light pens and magnetic strip readers.

But unlike the ScanFone, the Minitel can also tap into news services--KPIX Channel 5 and the Bay Guardian locally and USA Today and the Associated Press for national and world news--for a per-minute fee of 10 cents.

Additionally, Minitel has a form of electronic mail that lets people exchange messages. In France, the service even has a soft-core pornography “chat line,” which won’t be offered in America.

Previously, most on-line interactive information services were restricted to personal computer owners, who could tap into offerings such as CompuServe and Prodigy for a fee.

But coming years should see an explosion of phone-based information services. A federal court last year removed a barrier that blocked the seven regional Baby Bell phone companies from offering such services, and analysts now expect that they will become major players in the market.