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Paperless Statements Not Always Best Choice, Says New Report
HughPickens.com writes: Ann Carrns reports at the NYT that despite a push by financial institutions to switch customers to digital statements from paper, the traditional hard-copy version may work better for some people, in particuar particular, older, less educated and lower-income consumers who may lack fast Internet connections at home. According to a new report from the National Consumer Law Center, even consumers who know the Internet may simply prefer paper, because statement notifications can easily be overlooked in a deluge of email. Also unlike paper statements, which can be neatly collected and filed away, going paperless on multiple accounts will mean having that information scattered under different user names and passwords. You may also be surprised to learn you have to pay for copies of some older statements. "If you have a system for organizing your paper statements, you should think about how that's going to translate online," says Jim Bruene. Finally you may not be able to go back as far with paperless statements. At Verizon, cellphone customers get up to 12 months of past statements. Customers can also request older statements dating back seven years for $5 per copy.
Under federal law, banks must obtain consent from consumers to deliver statements electronically. But banks are sometimes aggressive in encouraging customers to opt out of receiving paper statements. Last summer, holders of some Chase credit cards received pop-up ads when they logged into their accounts online, asking them to switch to electronic statements. The notice said "Action Required," even though no action was necessary if cardholders simply wanted to continue receiving paper statements. The screen showed buttons for "accept" and "manage my preferences," but not for "decline."
Under federal law, banks must obtain consent from consumers to deliver statements electronically. But banks are sometimes aggressive in encouraging customers to opt out of receiving paper statements. Last summer, holders of some Chase credit cards received pop-up ads when they logged into their accounts online, asking them to switch to electronic statements. The notice said "Action Required," even though no action was necessary if cardholders simply wanted to continue receiving paper statements. The screen showed buttons for "accept" and "manage my preferences," but not for "decline."
"the traditional hard-copy version may work better for some people, in particuar particular, older, less educated and lower-income consumers who may lack fast Internet connections at home. "
For bank statements a 1200/300 baud phone connection should be sufficient.
As long as I don't have to pay for it, I don't care if they send the manager over to their home to tell them what they have in their account.
My bank has 5 years of online statements available, so I download all of them for the past year when I do my taxes, since I need them anyway then.
In the last 3 years I have been twice to a bank to get foreign currency, the only thing that I can't do online and the only people who were there were oldsters with a plastic bag full of invoices that they wanted the clerk to transfer money to, but they have to pay 3,5€ for each of those, so I don't care.
My bank had previously 20 tellers, now they have 1 information girl and 1 teller on a simple desk, that's it, the banks of our fathers are dead.
I don't need 15 secure places to login and get statements. The bank industry needs to get together to create a centralized secure statement repository where I can see it all. And maybe let my utilities pay to be delivered to this.
Or they could fix their statements so they're not printing full account numbers and use regular email - I don't care. It's not that much more risky than postal mail. For that matter, if I could click a link and then type just my username and password, that would be nice too. As it is now, you have to go to the bank's web site, log in, find the statements area, select the correct billing period, then choose a download format, and then finally download it.
I like both paper and digital copies. Both have advantages.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
For bank statements, or any other official correspondence, what I really need is a (a) complete, (b) permanent record that is (c) automatically and (d) reasonably securely moved to be (e) 100% under my control.
So far, the only way that happens is if they mail me paper copies. It is remarkable that we have yet to solve this apparently simple problem with a more technologically sophisticated alternative, but until we do, I will continue to opt out of getting statements [only] electronically.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
going paperless on multiple accounts will mean having that information scattered under different user names and passwords.
Which is then collected again under one username and password.
Is entities (some of them governamental) requiring statements of 3rd party accounts (electrical, water, gas, bank, etc) for allowing things like residence address change.
And then, if you print yourself the statement from the pdf that those entities provide, they don't accept it.
Perhaps, if those entities, if they only provide electronic documents, they should be forced to have a way to validate such documents.
I believe PGP already did something like that for emails...
I like both paper and digital copies. Both have advantages.
Exactly. I continue to require paper statements be mailed to me. I refuse to allow ANY communication via email. But, I happily use the online services including check images and statements when i choose to.
The very moment that anyone even implies that paper is old, useless, wasteful, for the less educated(really?), lower income... I immediately label them inexperienced and clueless morons. That they think that their smartphone is secure or the only window to the rest of the world shows them for what they are. Idiot kids, that will whine like babies when their system collapses.
But, there are still useful applications for the slower delivery of tangible paper reproductions, including many legal documents and even holiday cards.
You may have also noticed that when people are free to speak quickly and repeatedly without careful thought, much of what escapes into the electronic noise is tripe.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
LOL. Americans...
The push to paperless statements has nothing to do about the customer's desires, or the "going green" hogwash they advertise on the envelopes. The companies are pushing for paperless because paying people to print them out, stuff them envelopes, and then paying postage for 100k's of customers every month is an regular expense that eats into their bottom lines. Automatically pushing out a pdf by email, or posting it on a server, costs pennies and doesn't require nearly as many employees to accomplish.
This push is analogous to the self-scan checkouts at the supermarket. They're just trying to get rid of staff and get you to provide the service yourself.
I will always get paper statements from Comcast and I will always pay the monthly bill with a nice paper check because that is the only way I can screw with the bastards.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
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Aren't all these issues solved by the websites that offer statements as simple PDFs? Yes it is silly with today's age of 8tb+ drives that they don't store all history (considering every customer could have all their history stored on a single frigging drive). I think that latter part is a money grab since they do offer back statements at request for $$. I hate paper statements and find that the problem is the other way around - that I get actual envelopes sometimes even though I opted in to digital that simply have a summary or say "opted in to digital." Maybe the other problem is that not all providers offer the pdf option or make it difficult to get to and that people are just plain lazy if it isn't done for them. That I can agree with but it is likely those are the same people that just threw away the last X statements into the trash anyway.
I really don't care if it's not completely private that I pay comcast $72 a month.
Just don't provide any links to pay it in the email, so you don't get people even more prepared to be phished.. People can manaully go to comcast.net or use their bank's bill pay system.
Why not just print and/or save the file locally?
Eureka, retired people without a computer prefer direct mail, and young people who travel and change domiciles prefer PDF. Surely there is a Nobel Prize waiting somewhere.
Gently reply
Paperless statements SHOULD be much easier to handle and store than paper statements. Each statement should contain complete year-to-date information. Then you would only have to permanently save one file per year per bank. Banks should make the last year's statement available for several months into the new year and put prominent reminders to download the previous year's statements in the new years statements.
On one hand, I suppose this actually a useful article - i.e. how best to organize one's billing statements. But, wow, it's depressing. I mean, in a certain sense, it's about how to be a properly obedient little cog in the machine: you do your little job which gives you some money to pay some other little cogs to do some jobs for you.
In a world where it is technologically possible for a single individual to do incredible things, we are increasingly limited by inane bureaucracy. Supposedly the bureaucracy keeps us safe. But, more often than not, it seems to be more about providing an advantage to some well-connected special interest.
For example, I'm in the process of an international move back to the USA. On one hand, it's amazing that I can pack up some boxes and have them shipped literally halfway around the world for only a few thousand dollars. But US customs doesn't allow me to pack the boxes myself: I have to pay a moving company to do it.
Supposedly it's all about keeping America safe - preventing me from packing a little nuclear bomb in with my silverware to be shipped to the USA. But think about that for a minute. Let's say that I'm actually capable of finding a uranium mine somewhere in the world to sell me a bunch of unenriched uranium (e.g. yellow cake). And then I'm capable of getting it shipped to my secret laboratory where I have assembled the necessary equipment to enrich it. And then I'm capable of writing the numerical physics simulations to design the actual bomb. And then I'm capable of synthesizing the explosives necessary to trigger the nuclear chain reaction. And I'm capable of building the high-speed electronics and detonators necessary to generate the needed compression waves.
If I'm really capable of building a nuclear bomb, is forcing me to repack my boxes really going to be the thing that stops me from nuking the USA? Of course, the notion is utterly ludicrous. But that's the fashion these days - crush people under a mountain of inane pointless bureaucratic regulation in the vain hope that it might somehow miraculously manage to prevent bad things from happening.
There was a time when Slashdot was about the promise of technology to transform out lives for the better. Now, it's just about how to survive under the weight of inane bureaucracy that crushes individual initiative and renders us helpless - but properly obedient.
People without internet connection cannot access online statement ... you don't say!
I print out all of my emails, index them, and file them away. Except the spam of course. Wadded up and straight into the trash can with those.
For years, one of my banks wanted me to go paperless, while not offering anything similar to statements. I could only view transactions on a page (a page that did not print properly).
Then, the bank stated offering PDF downloads. However, when my credit card was suspended due to fraud, I could no longer log in and view that account.
Recently, when preparing for taxes, I downloaded the PDF statements. But getting to each statement took far too many clicks.
What is so hard to understand about the idea that I want 100% reliable and easy access to statements that look like paper statements?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
This just is: not everything is great for everybody!
News at eleven.
While paper statements can be faked, non-digitially-signed e-statements are typically even easier to fake.
If there is a dispute, I want the court *or, more likely, arbitrator, but that's another rant for another time) to presume the statement I provide is authentic unless the bank can prove otherwise.
When the banks start providing digitally-signed statements I'll seriously consider it.
If you refi, then need a statement from the old lender, you get screwed. I don't risk it. I just make them mail all those damn statements to me.
So I want a local copy, not trusting the company to provide access when (possibly years later, or after I terminate my account), but I'm not a web developer so coding up a script to log into each of my accounts and authenticate via whatever wacky scheme they've come up with this month to try to make it harder to phish their customers, and then find any new statements and download them automatically.
Turns out there's a perfect solution to this: email. If it's good enough for a password reset, it should be good enough for a statement. Of course it should be signed electronically by the company such that I (or a court) can easily validate it, and encrypted for me based on the public key I attached to my account. The encryption of the emails (both signing and actual encryption) would be somewhat computationally expensive, but nothing like the paper and stamp.
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That would intercept HTML between your bank and your browser to hide that it was stealing your money. Without paper statements everything looked fine, and the banks said you took too long to report your money being stolen.
Why would I want paper statements? Paper fades, gets wet, gets lost, takes up space, is inconvenient when you move, catches fire, has to be shredded... In contrast, eStatements are portable, save trees, and with cloud services, are virtually always redundantly backed up and available remotely wherever you happen to be. I've been using electronic banking for well over fifteen years, and I enjoy the convenience and safety of downloading my statements when I can get to them. You just have to keep in mind the billers online storage limits.
Nothing to see here but us trolls...move along...
I feel really badly for banks. People are so demanding. To have to offer electronic copies to some people, and then have others come along and say they want hard copies. How can banks survive if they have to offer this much service to people? This is what is wrong with America. People should understand that banks don't have the resources for this kind of insanity. Decide people! If it doesn't work for you then accept it!
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I recently moved, and I can't set up online billing with my electricity company until they mail me something in 3-5 weeks. Now I have to pay attention to the mail until I can set it up.
My bank is supposed to only send me e-statements, but sometimes they send me irrelevant things in the mail, too.
Luckily, once that goes through, I'll be able to go back to not having to deal with paperwork for the foreseeable future. Do some of you enjoy interacting with bureaucracy? I don't get it.
For me, the main problem with paperless statements is that they don't email you the statement - they require you to login to some website (with a name/password you might not remember), then navigate around the site until you find the statement, then download it. That's a real pain. I would much prefer to see a new email in my inbox, click on it to read it, then press "Archive" and be able to search for it (by company name) whenever I wanted in the future.
I understand the reasons for this - email has historically been insecure. But nowadays major email providers like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft all use STARTTLS. So there should be no obstacle to sending statements and notices by email to most people's addresses.
"Easy Access" means you want 5-7 years of documents. You probably also want to be able to Generate them on the fly. Now, multiply that by millions and millions of customers and add the fact that just about everybody wants them on the same day (with a huge spike in April for the US) and you've got a huge headache on your hands. Then add the complexity of generated corrected statements and multiple accounts and the real fun begins.
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Now I download the pdf statement for my important accounts each month and store them in my archive.
I do all my banking and brokerage online, but I print statements first so I can reconcile, and then file them in case the IRS ever needs to see it.
I switched to Geico recently, and I do love their phone app. But the last few times I've needed to show my insurance card, the f**ing app wanted to force an update right then and there - so I couldn't get to the proof of insurance without a lot of dicking around. So, I went back to printing out the damn thing and keeping it in the glove box.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
I used have an AT & T MasterCard credit card. After they offered the paperless option, I signed up figuring it would save the trees, etc.
It worked fine; then one month, I never got the "your bill is due" email, despite the lady on the phone saying they sent it thrice. I missed the payment due date, so there was a late charge and a finance charge added to my account, neither of which I had ever earned before as I pay my balance off monthly. She was nice enough to reverse the late fee, but enforced the other. I've gone back to the paper versions ever since.
I've had several accounts "cram" me into electronic statements by sneaking some wording in somewhere that if you look at a statement online or something that you are automatically enrolled in electronic statements. American Express did it to me, Best Buy did it to me. Then the problem is that they don't bother to send you statement reminders in email either, so at some point you just start getting calls from them asking why you haven't sent a payment and start racking up huge late fees.
Even if they did send a statement, which they didn't, I checked spam and everything, it is not just the technically clueless who get the shaft, it is the technically competent as well. I get dozens of e-mails a day. If I get an email from a credit card, unless I am at that very moment prepared to deal with it and pay it, it is just going to get put on the back burner and ultimately forgotten. My paper bills sit in a pile on my desk, in date order and get dealt with.
Also, paper statements are not available online forever. If the government comes after you, they can demand paperwork for in some cases 7 years, and in some cases, from the beginning of time. It is up to you to have that information available, and if you depend on your third parties to keep that for you, you are SOL. Basically you need to save a local copy electronically, or print it out and store. So they are outsourcing their cost of doing business to you without providing you a nice discount for performing their job for them.
As far as banks go, I go to my bank about 3 to 4 times per week. Most of those are for deposits. Yes, my bank has a mobile deposit app. Yes, like most banks, they charge a convenience fee for something which is a convenience for them and an inconvenience for you. The tellers are still free, so I make my deposits in person at the bank, where the tellers all know me and personally greet me by name.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Organizing paper statements requires having a system, some kind of stack of folders, that allow you to find statements you want to find. If you can do that, you can also organize e-statements using folders on your hard drive. If you can't do that, your paper statements are probably a mess too.
DON'T just trust the statement provider to keep them, download each statement each month as PDF and save it on your own hard drive. AND make sure you have backups! Statements aren't any good unless you hang on to them, whether they are e-statements or paper.
Organizing paper statements requires having a system, some kind of stack of folders, that allow you to find statements you want to find. If you can do that, you can also organize e-statements using folders on your hard drive. If you can't do that, your paper statements are probably a mess too.
DON'T just trust the statement provider to keep them, download each statement each month as PDF and save it on your own hard drive. AND make sure you have backups! Statements aren't any good unless you hang on to them, whether they are e-statements or paper.
Ah, but with paper statements, the provider will send them to you in a sufficiently permanent form.
And searching a "mess" of paper statements that is _only_ statements is easier than searching a mess of e-mail or files that includes everything from last week's lunch order to baby pictures.
I stopped using Citibank online when they stopped supporting Linux a couple of years ago.
I decided that logging in with Linux (Knoppix) was more secure at that time than Windows.
Citibank had a pretty good online system. (Not perfect, but if you were committed to digital, as I am, and you were willing to read the instructions carefully, do some trial and error, work with them, and call up their tech support number occasionally, it worked well.)
I also decided that I had to use paper and digital in parallel, until I was convinced that the digital was working well and doing everything that paper did. (It's stupid to quit the old system before the new system is working well, right?)
I kept getting paper statements, but I could download PDFs of my bank statements every year, which was convenient for a few forms I had to file with my bank statements, or to get checking and credit card account activity to import into spreadsheets.
Then one day I couldn't log in any more. At tech support, I first spoke to an asshole who tried to blame me and my computer for not connecting properly. Second try I got to a guy who understood what was going on and told me they had stopped supporting Linux. Win/Mac only.
Imagine working all night to file tax forms or some other financial documents by a deadline, and then find out at 2am that you suddenly can't log in any more.
Since then, I logged on in Windows a few times, but it was more trouble than it was worth. I could scan my printed statements, after all. And when I want real security, I go to the teller machine in the branch on the corner, where I have to go anyway to get cash.
I'm really surprised that Citibank, which made such a commitment to online banking, doesn't support Linux. (If anybody knows otherwise, let me know.) They must support Android phones, don't they?
This raises another problem with online banking. What if you're using a system that they suddenly stop supporting?
Anyway, when you've got your act together, Citibank, let me know.
I obey Murphy's Law religiously. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that as soon as I need to lay my hands on a particular statement for some critical reason my ISP will go down for 24 hours due to the need to repair something somewhere. While the paper might be hard to find, I can probably find it sooner than my ISP can fix whatever problem it has. Same reason I don't get e-bills.
I've noticed that if I download a statement at two different times, it may be different each time. I'm talking about "account statements", not "recent transactions" or the equivalent online functionality.Sometimes, the changes are harmless: a header formatting change, for example. Sometimes the changes are not so harmless - the statement date is today's date rather than the actual date (sometimes months or years earlier) -- or my address from now is put on the statement instead of the address they had on file back then. I haven't caught any changes to transactions yet, but I think it could happen.
Account statements are supposed to be static, are often available as generated PDFs, representing the account state at the end of a cycle, (e.g. a month).
Perhaps the bank would never go back and backdate a transaction or edit an old transaction to make a substantial difference to the statement. However, if the statement is not actually archived at the time, how can you be sure of that?
Not only does it cost you money when you need to get paper copies, the IRS in the USA and other government entities in other countries, do not accept printed or digital copies... only originals from the company or bank... so ya... digital sounds hugely legit... shake your heads people.