I don’t always pay attention to advertisement emails from my credit card company. One recent email actually caught my eye: “Slim down your mailbox and go paperless.” I was curious about how the company was encouraging people to give up their paper statements. I get some of the benefits, and had already gone paperless for my phone bill, which is fairly predictable each month. I just wasn’t ready to go full out paperless on all of my bills, especially for something like a credit card statement, which I like to review before making the payment. It is not a problem for me to shred statements every few months to keep my files slim.
This credit card company was smart in showing more perks of going paperless:
– Direct access and downloadable statements immediately from the past 12 months
– PDFs of past statements from up to 7 years ago available upon request
– Optional e-alerts if a payment has not been made a few days prior to the due date
I thought about clients, friends and family who constantly travel, so checking their statements and making payments online from anywhere is pretty impressive, and can provide peace of mind. If something seems off about a bill, it is pretty easy to access one online from anywhere.
I may not be fully there yet, but I know I will be. I am curious to hear from my readers. Do you find the paperless bill options to be a lifesaver, or a headache?
The problem is that I like to do Quicken checks so that I can categorize purchases and later get reports on specific categories. Eventually no one will have a choice as everything will be paperless. And, of course, the succeeding generations won’t be able to write their names since cursive has gone out the window.