Do You Receive Any of Your Bills in the Mail?

[butler]

@H200h

It’s interesting to see all the excuses for not wanting to receive snail-mail paper CC bills.

It proves to me that we are by nature lazy, and that the persistent marketing efforts, by just about every billing source to get us to accept email billing, has paid off for our creditors and service providers.

When the chips are down nothing beats a paper record. Especially a record of a debt you have to pay. With no paper record, you as a debtor, are at disadvantage.

For those reasons, I agree with Clark on this one.

So will you be the last holdout when checks are eliminated in the next few years ?

Some people are just averse to technology…

[H200h]

@butler

So will you be the last holdout when checks are eliminated in the next few years ?

Some people are just averse to technology…

We haven’t used checks to pay virtually all of our bills for years. A pad of checks lasts us a long time. And any transaction I can effect electronically is done so. I pay ALL of my utilities, insurance, credit cards, travel, transportation, online purchases, food, living expenses, etc. via credit card and only occasionally have to write a check. The discount grocer we use won’t take but one credit card so we use cash there. I get cash back on every credit card purchase.

I’ll bet you write more checks than I do. And I NEVER let any entity except the government taxing authorities access my bank accounts directly.

The reason I prefer paper statements is because they provide unchallengeable documentation not possible via a no-paper system. And the Internet will, from time to time, not be available when you need the information you opted to receive electronically.

I was selling “the paperless office” in the 1980’s and spent 30 years in the computer business, I’m hardly “averse to technology.”

[robertpri]

@H200h

I pay ALL of my … via credit card

I do the same, except via autopay.

[butler]

@H200h

We haven’t used checks to pay virtually all of our bills for years. A pad of checks lasts us a long time. And any transaction I can effect electronically is done so. I pay ALL of my utilities, insurance, credit cards, travel, transportation, online purchases, food, living expenses, etc. via credit card and only occasionally have to write a check. The discount grocer we use won’t take but one credit card so we use cash there. I get cash back on every credit card purchase.

I’ll bet you write more checks than I do. And I NEVER let any entity except the government taxing authorities access my bank accounts directly.

The reason I prefer paper statements is because they provide unchallengeable documentation not possible via a no-paper system. And the Internet will, from time to time, not be available when you need the information you opted to receive electronically.

I was selling “the paperless office” in the 1980’s and spent 30 years in the computer business, I’m hardly “averse to technology.”

Yet you want to keep paper statement…

Downloading and saving a PDF really isn’t that hard.

I only write checks to the contractors for our real estate, so yes, probably more than you. Everything else via bill pay or EFT.

[H200h]

@butler

Yet you want to keep paper statement…

Downloading and saving a PDF really isn’t that hard.

I only write checks to the contractors for our real estate, so yes, probably more than you. Everything else via bill pay or EFT.

I didn’t say I wanted to “keep” a paper statement, I said I wanted to receive them.

I can alter a PDF file so you cannot detect that it has been changed. It’s next to impossible to do the same with a paper document, that’s why important documents today are produced, executed, served and recorded in paper form.

For you to download a PDF file you must be able to access it, if the Internet is down you cannot do so. I’m pretty sure I was creating and using PDF files before you even knew they existed. I attended a tech conference in 1993 as an IBM contractor where the PDF file structure was introduced. It didn’t become an open standard until 2008.

I download and create PDF files all the time and convert docs to the format, use the secure file functions, forms capabilities, and digital signature function.

I also own a paper shredder to dispose of paper documents I no longer need.

[jimtoo]

We get most of our bills on paper via the USPS, but pay all but one or two infrequent ones via bill pay or credit card through a vendor web site. CenturyLink has said it will charge $1/month next year for paper billing, so we’ll get that via email. Our water and a few local vendors (like plumbing, pest control) bill via email. We will never give anyone access to our bank account to go in and take their payment.

[robertpri]

@jimtoo

We will never give anyone access to our bank account to go in and take their payment.

Agreed. All my autopays are linked to a credit card.

[butler]

I don’t even do any autopays. You should read some of the horror stories from that Texas winter storm and the people’s electric bills that were on autopay.

[robertpri]

@butler

I don’t even do any autopays

Many of mine are virtual cc’s that I can edit/delete any time. Any bill that has “auto-renew” gets a VCC# so I can set the expire date just months away.

[FloridaGuy]

I agree. good reasons.

[SonoranSilkies]

@butler

I don’t even do any autopays. You should read some of the horror stories from that Texas winter storm and the people’s electric bills that were on autopay

You can pay through your bank’s bill pay where YOU push the $$ to pay your bill vs them pulling it from your account or card.

[kcflyer]

@butler

So will you be the last holdout when checks are eliminated in the next few years ?

I haven’t written a check in over 10 years.

[D_Knezevich]

If memory serves me, when I received credit card statement by mail, they came in an envelope with the Bank Logo and “Statement enclosed” in bold print on it. The statement includes my full name, wifes name and the complete account number. I maintain a Quicken register, reconcile to the penny and pay througjh the bank’s bill pay screen immediately so every billing cycle start with a zero balance! The paperless option is safer.

[NancyM]

@butler

Texas

…Texas

[lin_jo]

no i do all mine online and if i use my card i wait the two or three days for it to post and i pay it. i actually prefer to pay with cash for items i am buying locally but when i buy online i have to use my credit card. so when I do I make sure to pay it as soon as it post. i also download my statement and actually print them every month. i saved them on my computer but still print them every month.

[Bill]

I don’t like getting credit card or bank statements in the mail. For some reason some of them include your full account number on the statements and I don’t want thieves to find it. Because of mail thieves, I don’t even put important mail to be sent in my mailbox. I take it directly to the post office.

[SonoranSilkies]

I replaced my mailbox in January 2022. The new one is a locking box. For things going out that I’m concerned about (such as a ballot I mailed today), I drop the envelope into the box at the post office.

[sias]

I pay everything online, no bills in the mail at all. But I am very diligent about security, using a unique password for every website and changing my password and security questions often.
How to Safely Bank Online – The Tech Minimalist (wordpress.com)

[rjratnip]

No paper statements for me. All electronic, including credit cards. Like others I look at my CC statements in detail and record them in Quicken.

[glasspilot]

@SonoranSilkies

I replaced my mailbox in January 2022. The new one is a locking box.

If you receive a package where does your carrier put it?

(edit: grammer)