Bank charges for paper statements

[brett]

Where we live many businesses are charging for paper statements. Can't say that I blame them. It is an expensive proposition.

Prior to travelling and living in temp. locations for a year or so we moved everything possible to email statements. It sure cut down on the shredding. Plus it had the added convenience of being able to access and act on any statements while not at home. Lets save the trees.

 

[prudent_one]

I would go to all e-statements but my wife is not very computer-literate and if something happened to me I'm afraid chaos would ensue. So I pay a couple places for paper statements. If other places where we have accounts start charging for paper, I'll just consolidate accounts.

 

[H2ODude]

I think that's the US Post Office I hear sobbing in distance! Only paper I get now is annual FIDO and monthly Amex bill that I use to reconcile. Save paper? Financial statements are nothing compared to all the crap offers and catalogs. On trash day as I roll the recycle bin in I stop at mailbox and usually have nothing left to bring in the house after I sort through it all.

 

[jebmke]

Financial statements are nothing compared to all the crap offers and catalogs.

You can't even die to avoid these. My BIL has been dead since 2010 and we still get stuff addressed to him (we had his mail forwarded to us when he went into the hospital).

 

[calmloki]

I don't understand printing electronic statements just to have a printed copy.

If you save the PDF (or whatever other form), you always have the option to print it -- oh well, I did assume that one has a PC backup plan that is at least as good as the backup plan for those paper documents.

SO is way ahead of me and most anyone else we meet on making computer and phone and device operating systems do her bidding - she is just dogged about digging down into menu trees and figuring out how a system works. When she worked as an automotive parts counter person they would have contests to see who could find a part in their system the fastest and she won. always. Her ability to use the best search terms means she can pull out obscure facts or info on people and places from the internet at a downright scary speed.

Before her folks died she transferred all their boxes of slides - thousands of them - to digital using a Nikon camera and lens attachment. one at a time. She has something like 80,000 digital songs on redundant hard drives - for Christmas last year she created a list of artists and songs and gave people full 64 GB thumb drives - I mean full as in could not fit another single song. Dogged. Persistent. Not shy about work.

We have our Quicken files - and copies of Quicken to run them - on several computers as well as in a safety deposit box and on thumb drives at home and on the road when we travel.

The cloud does not get our data - oh sure, I'm sure it is all out there, but we aren't using it as dedicated storage.

Paper files? Yup, probably several tons in the attic and in multiple file cabinets. I imagine it is the same reason we have way more real estate than stocks. We can touch them. They are real and under our direct control. Come the massive alien EMP we can let PenFed know they owe us $xxx - and have the paper to back it up. If the whole dang world goes kerscheeit I guess we can build an igloo out of banker boxes and stay warm through the nuclear winter burning statements from1997 back. Until then, since all I have to do is move file boxes and run the printer we will keep paper files. I don't have the army or the energy to oppose SO's will on that little matter.

 

[aja8888]

SO is way ahead of me and most anyone else we meet on making computer and phone and device operating systems do her bidding - she is just dogged about digging down into menu trees and figuring out how a system works. When she worked as an automotive parts counter person they would have contests to see who could find a part in their system the fastest and she won. always. Her ability to use the best search terms means she can pull out obscure facts or info on people and places from the internet at a downright scary speed.

Before her folks died she transferred all their boxes of slides - thousands of them - to digital using a Nikon camera and lens attachment. one at a time. She has something like 80,000 digital songs on redundant hard drives - for Christmas last year she created a list of artists and songs and gave people full 64 GB thumb drives - I mean full as in could not fit another single song. Dogged. Persistent. Not shy about work.

We have our Quicken files - and copies of Quicken to run them - on several computers as well as in a safety deposit box and on thumb drives at home and on the road when we travel.

The cloud does not get our data - oh sure, I'm sure it is all out there, but we aren't using it as dedicated storage.

Paper files? Yup, probably several tons in the attic and in multiple file cabinets. I imagine it is the same reason we have way more real estate than stocks. We can touch them. They are real and under our direct control. Come the massive alien EMP we can let PenFed know they owe us $xxx - and have the paper to back it up. If the whole dang world goes kerscheeit I guess we can build an igloo out of banker boxes and stay warm through the nuclear winter burning statements from1997 back. Until then, since all I have to do is move file boxes and run the printer we will keep paper files. I don't have the army or the energy to oppose SO's will on that little matter.

Wow! how the heck do you keep track of all of this?

 

[Walt34]

Speaking of bank fees, I was very surprised to learn that the bank charges my quilt guild a fee for depositing cash. I am the Treasurer & we have a "small business" account. We just had our biennial quilt show which of course took in a large amount of cash. They charged 12 cents per $100, for any cash over $5000 in a month. Thus we incurred a fee of $4.20 last month. Irritated, I considered changing banks, but they all probably have their version of "hidden" fees, & then we'd also have to pay for new checks & deposit slips.

That would flat-out irritate me to the point that I'd find a new bank. My guild's money is not good enough for you? Nuts to you bank!

 

[Rustward]

SO is way ahead of me and most anyone else we meet on making computer and phone and device operating systems do her bidding - she is just dogged about digging down into menu trees and figuring out how a system works. When she worked as an automotive parts counter person they would have contests to see who could find a part in their system the fastest and she won. always. Her ability to use the best search terms means she can pull out obscure facts or info on people and places from the internet at a downright scary speed.

Before her folks died she transferred all their boxes of slides - thousands of them - to digital using a Nikon camera and lens attachment. one at a time. She has something like 80,000 digital songs on redundant hard drives - for Christmas last year she created a list of artists and songs and gave people full 64 GB thumb drives - I mean full as in could not fit another single song. Dogged. Persistent. Not shy about work.

We have our Quicken files - and copies of Quicken to run them - on several computers as well as in a safety deposit box and on thumb drives at home and on the road when we travel.

The cloud does not get our data - oh sure, I'm sure it is all out there, but we aren't using it as dedicated storage.

Paper files? Yup, probably several tons in the attic and in multiple file cabinets. I imagine it is the same reason we have way more real estate than stocks. We can touch them. They are real and under our direct control. Come the massive alien EMP we can let PenFed know they owe us $xxx - and have the paper to back it up. If the whole dang world goes kerscheeit I guess we can build an igloo out of banker boxes and stay warm through the nuclear winter burning statements from1997 back. Until then, since all I have to do is move file boxes and run the printer we will keep paper files. I don't have the army or the energy to oppose SO's will on that little matter.

Understand. Do whatever works for you.

I have several hundred pounds of paper -- just about every bill, statement, trade confirmation and check that I ever wrote before a few years ago dating back to the 1970's. I filled about 1 banker box per year. I can't ever recall having to go back any further than a few months on anything, and even those situations were rare. The charges for paper statements gave me the incentive to create a very simple system of filing the electronic statements. I have been working with computers since 1973, so this is no great accomplishment for me. The stuff gets backed up every 4 hours to three different locations. The backup/restore is also backed up on the same media (bootable -- so I have the capability to do a "bare metal" restore if necessary -- for a while I worked in the "disaster recovery" software business, so am familiar with those scenarios).

But now, I have all this paper, some of it 40 years old, and I need to get rid of it.

 

[calmloki]

Understand. Do whatever works for you.

I have several hundred pounds of paper -- just about every bill, statement, trade confirmation and check that I ever wrote before a few years ago dating back to the 1970's. I filled about 1 banker box per year. I can't ever recall having to go back any further than a few months on anything, and even those situations were rare. The charges for paper statements gave me the incentive to create a very simple system of filing the electronic statements. I have been working with computers since 1973, so this is no great accomplishment for me. The stuff gets backed up every 4 hours to three different locations. The backup/restore is also backed up on the same media (bootable -- so I have the capability to do a "bare metal" restore if necessary -- for a while I worked in the "disaster recovery" software business, so am familiar with those scenarios).

But now, I have all this paper, some of it 40 years old, and I need to get rid of it.

Igloos man - igloos or bonfires.

I would be happy to just run with a current bank statement and the 1099 that pops up on the websites, but that's not gonna happen. Most of my paper filing is via holding the page up and looking helpless, followed by an exasperated breath and someone explaining to me that things are filed from the back of the manila folder marked Dieringer inside the hanging file marked New Loans in the second drawer down of the 2013 cabinet... unless it's in the "goes south" files or the keep forever files or the tax prep files.. But by gar, she can find anything like a flash, so that's what counts.

 

[Walt34]

But now, I have all this paper, some of it 40 years old, and I need to get rid of it.

Here's what you can use, an 800 hp shredder. Pretty impressive:

 

[Rustward]

Found one of the mobile shred services that parks one of their trucks in front of their office every Saturday. They charge $10 for the first box and $5/box for the others. You watch them do it. That'll probably be good enough.

 

[Theseus]

I have several hundred pounds of paper -- just about every bill, statement, trade confirmation and check that I ever wrote before a few years ago dating back to the 1970's.

And I read this as I sit here in my office, surrounded by stacks of various paperwork, sorted by category... Sometimes, and right now is one of those times - I am so glad to have been a bit of a packrat. Currently in a -- uh, I'll call it a difference of opinion, with my now ex-employer as I very recently retired. Seems their thinking of whether pay was current or in arrears, coupled with vacation vesting rights had an HR minion thinking it would be OK to just not pay me my final paycheck. I have dug through over 20 years worth of employment related paperwork, which includes old memos, pay statements, and even my interview notes with names, dates, and topic of discussion. In my paperwork, I was hoping to find the smoking gun to prove my point, but I found several flaming cannons instead. Old paperwork can be mighty useful.

 

[Rustward]

And I read this as I sit here in my office, surrounded by stacks of various paperwork, sorted by category... Sometimes, and right now is one of those times - I am so glad to have been a bit of a packrat. Currently in a -- uh, I'll call it a difference of opinion, with my now ex-employer as I very recently retired. Seems their thinking of whether pay was current or in arrears, coupled with vacation vesting rights had an HR minion thinking it would be OK to just not pay me my final paycheck. I have dug through over 20 years worth of employment related paperwork, which includes old memos, pay statements, and even my interview notes with names, dates, and topic of discussion. In my paperwork, I was hoping to find the smoking gun to prove my point, but I found several flaming cannons instead. Old paperwork can be mighty useful.

I guess I am having trouble remembering saying that one should throw everything out. Obviously if you might need it, then you should keep it. Do I really need my phone bills from 1976?

 

[bUU]

And it is also a matter of what medium to keep things. Six, six-drawer filing cabinets versus a two thumb drives stored in different locations?

 

[Spanky]

That is where these cloud storage spaces like google drive or one drive can be useful. Save the documents there and it doesn't matter if your computer crashes.

I am not brave enough to put confidential info on network storage. Instead, I store them in a couple of USB sticks with encryption.

 

[bUU]

I think we face greater risks to our confidential info from our banks systems being hacked than from OneDrive being hacked. Everything on the bank's system is valuable so it is a much more lucrative target for hacking by an order of magnitude, as compared to OneDrive within which confidential info is mixed in with family photos, MP3s, personal correspondence, etc., yet is just as secure. My company recently has started keeping its proprietary intellectual property in Microsoft Azure.

 

[Rustward]

I think we face greater risks to our confidential info from our banks systems being hacked than from OneDrive being hacked. Everything on the bank's system is valuable so it is a much more lucrative target for hacking by an order of magnitude, as compared to OneDrive within which confidential info is mixed in with family photos, MP3s, personal correspondence, etc., yet is just as secure. My company recently has started keeping its proprietary intellectual property in Microsoft Azure.

+1

Yes. Most everyone's data is more important to the owner than it is to others.
Well, exceptions might be account numbers to accounts from which cash can be extracted, passwords, PINs, etc. -- those and the like need special handling.

 

[timo2]

What I'm doing at the moment is when I scan a financial document I'm using the 'scan to printer' selection on the scanner. I then print it to a Microsoft OneNote file located on OneDrive. Since OneNote is searchable, it is more useful than just saving single pdfs. Also, since I can make different sections in OneNote, I have a section for each tax year, my HSA, random receipts, home maintenance, etc.

One day I will run out of free space on OneDrive, so I will have to consider the options then. I could find all the different vendors that provide some free space and put things in different places, or pay for more space, or I don't know.

 

[martyb]

So far, my credit union is not charging me for mailed paper statements. I do pretty much all of my transactions online, once in awhile I actually go inside the building or use the ATM, but mostly it's online. I still like getting the paper statements. Wife isn't online as much as I am, and I feel like if something happened to me, she would be happier to get the statements in the mail.

 

[bUU]

They keep increasing the amount of free space on OneDrive faster than I use it up.

 

[Katsmeow]

What I'm doing at the moment is when I scan a financial document I'm using the 'scan to printer' selection on the scanner. I then print it to a Microsoft OneNote file located on OneDrive. Since OneNote is searchable, it is more useful than just saving single pdfs. Also, since I can make different sections in OneNote, I have a section for each tax year, my HSA, random receipts, home maintenance, etc.

One day I will run out of free space on OneDrive, so I will have to consider the options then. I could find all the different vendors that provide some free space and put things in different places, or pay for more space, or I don't know.

That is nice. My scanner (HP printer) doesn't have that function. Is there some other way to bring a PDF into OneNote?

 

[youbet]

But now, I have all this paper, some of it 40 years old, and I need to get rid of it.

I had that problem, but on a smaller scale.

I discovered 3 shoe boxes of cancelled checks on a closet shelf several years ago. Back in the 70's when DW and I were setting up our household, we put her in charge of balancing the check book and storing the cancelled checks. She did a good job. Nothing for me to worry about. If on rare occasion I needed to know if/when something was paid, the check register always had the info.

I really didn't keep track of the fact she was carefully bundling and storing the cancelled checks without a plan of purging them after some period of time. When I stumbled across them, there were thousands covering almost 40 years!

I looked through some and there were lots and lots of memories! Instead of sitting in front of the shredder, I decided that since it was winter I'd just slowly add them to the woodstove after fanning through a small stack per evening looking for interesting bits of our history. It was great fun! I'd grab a bundle of checks and, usually while watching TV or listening to music, fan through them and find examples that were fun or at least interesting to discuss and recall the times.......

Some of the laughs/memories we got involved cancelled checks that reminded us of:

Paying of DW's college loans (which were substantial, more than her first year's income!)
Paying for our first new car, a 1970 VW bug, on a time payment plan.
Bailing a college buddy out of jail after a DUI incident.
Buying stock in our local community bank when it was still a house trailer on a gravel parking lot in about 1975. (That panned out well!)
Making mortgage payments.
Paying for grad school.
Paying for DS's college.
Funding a trust for our special needs grandson.
Buying DS and DIL new cars. (Not at the same time.....)
Etc. Etc.

Lotsa memories. Lotsa discussions. Getting everything glanced over and burned took 4 or 5 evenings and 4 or 5 bottles of wine. I wouldn't recommend saving paperwork like this, but as long as we did, we made the best out of getting rid of it.

 

[Walt34]

Lotsa memories. Lotsa discussions. Getting everything glanced over and burned took 4 or 5 evenings and 4 or 5 bottles of wine. I wouldn't recommend saving paperwork like this, but as long as we did, we made the best out of getting rid of it.

And a lot better plan than sitting in front of the shredder until it starts to smoke.

 

[timo2]

That is nice. My scanner (HP printer) doesn't have that function. Is there some other way to bring a PDF into OneNote?

When OneNote is installed it should set itself up as a printer driver. Open the .pdf and when printing use 'print to onenote'.

I have an HP scanner also. The 'scan to printer' feature is probably a software function, so I'm wondering if there is an update to the software on the HP web page?