Have you opted to ‘go paperless’?

@Fleura (28940)
United Kingdom
January 28, 2018 6:23am CST
Now that so much business is transacted over the internet, and it’s easy to download and store documents virtually, I’m constantly being asked by banks and building societies if I want to ‘go paperless’ to save money and benefit the environment. My first instinct was to agree, as it seems like a good thing all around. But now I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all a con to shift the costs onto the customer. If you open an online account, then statements are available online for you to look at any time, which is fine – but of course if you need those statements to prove anything to another institution you have to download and print them yourself. If you close the account then the online statements just vanish so you no longer have access to those records. That’s fine you think – I no longer have the account so why would I need to see the statements? But for tax purposes you have to keep records for at least 6 years, so for every account you open and close during that time you need to keep all the records, just in case. And then if you need to send anything to the tax office you have to print them all off – in duplicate because it’s always a good idea to keep a copy of everything you send to the tax people! So in the end it doesn’t save any paper, you just have to print them later, so no environmental benefit. And of course you pay the printing costs, whereas if you don’t choose the paperless option, the bank send them to you free of charge. I’m sticking with old-fashioned paper statements! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2018.
17 people like this
15 responses
@dodo19 (47034)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
28 Jan 18
I guess there are benefits to both, to paperless and having the records. I can see why it's easier for some to have paper statements.
3 people like this
@dodo19 (47034)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
28 Jan 18
@Fleura That's actually another good point for paper copies.
1 person likes this
@m_audrey6788 (58487)
• Germany
28 Jan 18
Sorry my friend I have to disagree on this because paperless are a little bit risky for me As you can see, most data at the net can be manipulated, deleted and corrupted but if you keep a hard printed data with you. Then, you can look into it when technical emergencies on the net happens
3 people like this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 18
I agree, with paper it is all under your control as long as it is kept safe.
1 person likes this
• Germany
28 Jan 18
@Fleura Yes After all, We all need to help ourself to make ways on how we organize things at our place in order to find them when the need of them comes
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
28 Jan 18
I agreed to paperless billing for each company that offered the option as soon as the option appeared. I appreciate your point about requiring printouts, but that would not apply to everything. My pet hate is that British Gas insist on paperless billing, but when they pay me a quarterly fee for solar power they send me a cheque.
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
28 Jan 18
@Fleura Extremely annoying because I have to travel to the bank to pay it in.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 18
Huh! How annoying!
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22412)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
28 Jan 18
I fear the day we eventually are truly paperless, if only for the reason that going to the bathroom would be a tad uncomfortable...
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22412)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
28 Jan 18
@Fleura Hmm. I'll bet they had a slave for that too!
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 18
We'd have to revert to washable sponges, like the Romans.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118207)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan 18
Everything we do in this world today that "helps save the environment" is a sham, and nothing more than a con to make us feel good about the planet we helped destroy. Let's face it, we've already destroyed this earth past the point of no return, so saving a few pieces of paper is doing absolutely nothing to help the environment. It is probably costing you more in electricity to power your computer to view your statement online than the savings you realize from not having a printed copy mailed to you.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118207)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Jan 18
@Fleura I'm not as disillusioned as my comments may have seemed. I do everything I can to help our planet out. I reduce, reuse and recycle. I plant trees. I don't use plastic shopping bags, I go paperless whenever I can. I really am trying to help Mother Nature recover!
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 18
@moffittjc Sorry I didn't mean to sound critical!
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 18
I'm not quite so disillusioned as you, but it's certainly true that there are plenty of businesses or organisations or individuals that will jump on the latest bandwagon, and if they think they can get what they want by using the latest catchy phrases they will do so whether there is any truth in them or not!
1 person likes this
@KristenH (33355)
• Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
28 Jan 18
I've opted to do paperless bank statements only. The rest is all paper.
2 people like this
@jaboUK (64363)
• United Kingdom
30 Jan 18
I don't do my banking online, so I still get paper statements. I've opted for paperless bills for my utilities as that does save me money - £22 a year.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
31 Jan 18
Yes that's true - even if you have to print them all out you should still save.
1 person likes this
@MALUSE (69428)
• Germany
28 Jan 18
I don't find 'paperless' an attractive option, either.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 18
No, it's a nuisance storing everything in virtual files and having to keep backing it up etc.
@Poppylicious (11133)
29 Jan 18
I don't mind going paperless. My only gripe is that we are now paperless at work for pay slips and P60s. Fair enough. I save all mine in a folder on my documents. But it does mean that when I leave I'll have to print them out, although as I can use the printer at work I'm losing no money. Phew.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
29 Jan 18
Yes it's OK as long as you don't need to take copies anywhere!
@JudyEv (323672)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Jan 18
As you've related, there are all sorts of problems with going paperless. Sometimes for whatever reason it is difficult to get onto the bank's website to see your records and this can be very inconvenient.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
29 Jan 18
Yes it can be a real pain and if you can't retrieve them you have to go back to the bank with all sorts of ID to obtain copies.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109865)
• Los Angeles, California
28 Jan 18
It is a means of companies to save money and make you pay for ink and paper to print. I want a hard copy in hand not on some machine that can be hacked or not available.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 18
Yes I think it's just a way of tricking us into taking on some of the costs.
1 person likes this
@thelme55 (76342)
• Germany
28 Jan 18
No, I haven't. I love paying in cash.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
29 Jan 18
Me too; I can't imagine a cashless society.
1 person likes this
• Trinidad And Tobago
28 Jan 18
I am old school just like you for all the above reasons. I have long reasoned that there is no benefits in the long term but the modern enthusiast keep insisting that the new technology is superior. Superior my eye! When there is a glitch and the info is lost and I remind then that it was better to keep printed records, they just keep saying...it was not supposed to work so. But the bottom line is that I lost the info and not having the info means I can't prove anything.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (28940)
• United Kingdom
28 Jan 18
So true, you end up keeping electronic and paper versions of everything in several different places, and then it all gets more confusing!
@Mshafeeq (1445)
• Bangalore, India
28 Jan 18
I quite like this going paperless will definitely benefit not only to environment but also to us managing the documents. It helps in almost everything in a daily life while travelling in business and so on..
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (454979)
• Switzerland
28 Jan 18
I can have both here, statements sent at home and also available online, there is no additional cost. I want to receive the paper statements at home, because I want to be sure that, no matter what happens online, I receive them and I can always make a copy if necessary to prove anything.
1 person likes this