Do you go paperless?

[CaptTom]

I believe the USPS can be likened to the army maintaining divisions of cavalry on horseback. It's long outlived its purpose...

Surprisingly, as someone who strives to go paperless, I actually like the USPS.

They deliver most of our Amazon packages. Whenever they get something in to the post office, they deliver it. They don't leave it sitting in a warehouse somewhere because the sender only paid for 5-day delivery. They're much cheaper than the big package delivery services. The folks at our local PO are pleasant. Before I buy a product on line, I look for a seller who has an option to ship via USPS.

And it's not just the junk mail but all of the inserts and other fluff which get included in the bills. Ever notice how fat the envelopes are which include bills or statements?

Some companies charge you extra for sending a paper bill or statement, then fill your mailbox with expensive, glossy pamphlets and brochures anyway.

 

[ABQ2015]

I pay most of my bills online but refuse to go paperless on billing although I also get electronic notifications when credit card bills are due. There have been too many times where I had issues with my laptop and could not access my email for a week or more or my laptop died. My work computer and email was a backup but they blocked many sites for security reasons including access to personal email accounts. Several years ago in a moment of weakness, I opted for paperless billing on my landline phone account only to find I could not set the password and it took weeks and a few phone calls with their helpline to fix it.

 

[Car-Guy]

I have been paying most (but not all) of my bills on line but still have been receiving paper bills to "remind" me it's time to pay. HOWEVER, again last month, two of my bills didn't make it to my PO Box in the US Mail. It's a good thing I got electronic email notices too or they would have been paid late. The US Mail has failed me a several times in the past year (not sure what's going on). I know at least 4 pieces of mail I was expecting have been "lost" and in one case significantly delayed in delivery. Of course I don't know what else may have been sent to me and lost.

Maybe it time to go paperless "and" auto bill pay.

 

[cathy63]

...It's a good thing I got electronic email notices too or they would have been paid late...

Maybe it time to go paperless "and" auto bill pay.

You could put the reminders on an electronic calendar such as Google. I use Quicken, but if I didn't, I'd just setup a recurring reminder on the 2nd of the month for the cable bill, 12th of the month for SDG&E, etc, and then the reminders would pop up on my phone so I could pay on the due date even if I hadn't received the bills.

 

[audreyh1]

We have a couple of encrypted drive images with years of PDF statements and backups of them. We usually have at least one backup in offsite storage. Much easier than filing them. Just don’t have paper statements anymore.

 

[CaptTom]

You could put the reminders on an electronic calendar such as Google.

Another option would be to set up auto-payments that "pull" from a credit card or checking account for bills that vary month-to-month. As long as you're not risking overdrawing your account (a concern in my younger days) there's really no reason not to. Obviously you should monitor all your accounts for accuracy and to detect fraud. This would be no different.

For me, the one exception is my water bill. They haven't caught up with the 21st century yet. For that I have a reminder in MS Money. If I miss the paper bill, or I'm out of town, I can always call them to get the amount due.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I pay most of my bills online but refuse to go paperless on billing although I also get electronic notifications when credit card bills are due. There have been too many times where I had issues with my laptop and could not access my email for a week or more or my laptop died. My work computer and email was a backup but they blocked many sites for security reasons including access to personal email accounts. Several years ago in a moment of weakness, I opted for paperless billing on my landline phone account only to find I could not set the password and it took weeks and a few phone calls with their helpline to fix it.

Because of our recent move and with everything in storage for 90+ days, I about went nuts without my desktop computer. My laptop was on the fritz so I had to get better with my cell phone in a hurry. We had left a ton of money in checking account with the purpose of buying some new furnishings, TV, etc. I'd get a bill on email and immediately pay it through online banking. Didn't worry about records. Hoping I didn't make any mistakes. One of the things that drove me nuts were passwords. I hate passwords. I know there is something out there to ease the frustration with passwords.

 

[CaliKid]

I'm quoting you as an example of the people who posted here about being paperless (which we are not). How do you have your finances set up so your spouse or someone else could easily take over bill paying?

I'm thinking maybe I should set up a separate email account for only bill paying so DH wouldn't have to wade through all my emails to find the bills and confirmations of payment (and as a paper person, he would just print them all out anyway )?

PS: companies should offer a $ incentive for paperless, and they would be amazed at how many people would switch.

I have a long printed out document (yes paper) that summarizes all financial matters, estate planning, bills, etc.... It includes how to gain access to email. These instructions would work for my spouse or whoever happens to be the one picking up the pieces. It's in a well marked sealed envelope in an obvious place if someone were looking for paperwork. I update it every 6 months to a year.

The key to me is email access since that's where everything happens.

The reality is that if my spouse somehow doesn't get into my email eventually the companies will send a letter by mail saying we owe money. So the very worst case, not likely, is a late fee. It doesn't seem like a big deal and, again, that seems highly unlikely.

100% paperless on any bill or "mail" that allows paperless.

 

[Hermit]

Most everything is transmitted paperless. I print out long bank and credit card statements so I can reconcile the statement against Quicken records. I haven't figured out how to check things off on a pdf file like I do with a red pen on paper.

 

[audreyh1]

Most everything is transmitted paperless. I print out long bank and credit card statements so I can reconcile the statement against Quicken records. I haven't figured out how to check things off on a pdf file like I do with a red pen on paper.

I don't check things off - although I used to by highlighting or marking comments on the PDF using Preview.

Now I just go in order tracking both Quicken and the statement and find each corresponding receipt. I've found marking up stuff to be unnecessary.

 

[NH Hiker]

I believe the USPS can be likened to the army maintaining divisions of cavalry on horseback. It's long outlived its purpose I would support mail service of 1-2 times per week at centralized points similar to above (where on stop delivers mail for hundreds of residences).

Unfortunately, the USPS can not be run totally like a normal business since Congress controls many aspects. When USPS tried to eliminate Saturday delivery in 2013, it was rejected by Congress.

 

[Montecfo]

I guess I have to say we are mostly paper. Most of my bills are paid electronically (pull method). Small bills are paperless, but we get paper bank statements. I find it more convenient than logging into websites to review bills. We file tax returns on paper. It is just safer. It seems to me paperless is mainly a convenience for the vendor, saves them cost.

I do archive my investment records annually. And I look for opportunities to go paperless when it is convenient to me.

 

[Helena]

.

If Orwell's "1984" Big Brother had the internet, it would be so much easier for him to re-write history.

In other words, I prefer paper.

 

[ocean view]

I went paperless 8-10 years ago primarily because I wanted to keep all of my records, but was running out of file cabinets. But secondarily because of my security concern of paper statements, which contain full account numbers and until recently SSNs and other sensitive information.

For those who are concerned about missing a bill because the internet is unavailable for a few days, I have to ask how many bills do you have with such short payment terms? Most give you at least 20 days. For most outages (hurricanes and fires excepted), this should not be an issue.

One thing I do regularly is to review my list of bill payments from my bank’s website to make sure all bills are either pending to be paid or have just recently paid, so I know that no bills have been missed. I think my bank billpay system will email me if a set amount of time has passed and bill xyz has not been received. Again, another failsafe so bills are not missed.

Lastly, someone mentioned not saving to pdf, but merely being able to access their online account as needed for historical access. To them I say be careful. A few years ago we changed the type of our checking account to avoid bank fees. We were still with the same bank and even kept the same account numbers, just the account type changed. And with that ALL of the prior account type records disappeared. I no longer had access to them. The best the bank could do was to mail me stmt copies for just the prior few years, which I scanned and shredded. So don’t assume you’ll always have access.

 

[kcowan]

I download CC transactions into spreadsheets monthly and do not d/l the monthly PDFs. Does anyone see a problem with that?

 

[audreyh1]

I download CC transactions into spreadsheets monthly and do not d/l the monthly PDFs. Does anyone see a problem with that?

There is a lot more info on the statements than the list of transactions. That’s what you’re missing. Is that important to you?

 

[cathy63]

I download CC transactions into spreadsheets monthly and do not d/l the monthly PDFs. Does anyone see a problem with that?

Do you think you'll ever need to refer back to a statement that's either no longer available online or that belongs to a card you've closed? I could see the need if I were trying to use one of the CC perks such as a warranty extension or travel insurance.

I actually do the same as you, and I've never yet needed an old statement, so I just go ahead and take the risk and figure I'll deal with the problem when and if it happens. If I needed to call a CC company and ask for an old statement to prove a purchase or something, I do have all the transaction data, so I would know which statement I needed.

 

[brett]

We went paperless five years ago, or as paperless as possible. We do have a small box of hard copy tax records however we cull them as time passes.

There were two imperatives. During downsized we came to realize how much useless paper records we had accumulated over the years. Lots of shredding. Then some more.

When we sold, and then traveled for an extending period we made the decision to move everything possible away for hard copy/snail mail. We have continued that process ever since. Just started taking the local paper two weeks ago but plan to cancel. Too much junk news in it, too many adverts and flyers. Back to on line news providers.

 

[kcowan]

If I needed to call a CC company and ask for an old statement to prove a purchase or something, I do have all the transaction data, so I would know which statement I needed.

Yes they are no longer available online but they will provide them (often for a fee) so I take that risk. The alternative is a PDF blizzard. So far, I have never needed one.

I suppose it is a part of my resolution to cease being so anal. I still store Bills of Sale for warranted goods.

 

[Hermit]

DD has taken the next step and takes a picture of each receipt when she gets it and puts in an app on her phone were she also indicates the amount and category, etc. She then can throw out the paper receipt. She then downloads her data from the CC company into Quicken and can look up any transaction as needed in the sorted report generated by the phone app while reconciling her Quicken accounts. I would go that way if there were a phone app I could use to update the Quicken registers with receipt pictures and data directly.

 

[RetireAge50]

All this quicken and paper and PDFs and receipts. A lot of accountants here (and work). End of day all a waste of time IMHO. How much money has been saved or refunded versus all the time spent?

 

[Hermit]

All this quicken and paper and PDFs and receipts. A lot of accountants here (and work). End of day all a waste of time IMHO. How much money has been saved or refunded versus all the time spent?

I have been entering receipts and checks into Quicken, putting the receipts and checks into a box, and reconciling the accounts each month for around 30 years. I wouldn't feel comfortable not knowing the details of what I have spent money on. After 10 or 15 years, I toss the old receipts and recycle the box because I cannot get plastic check storage boxes anymore. Reducing the hassle of keeping the receipts and checks would cut down on some of the effort. Having a linked picture of the item would enhance the Quicken database and reporting capability.

 

[BeachOrCity]

Paperless, but very little auto-pay. Stopped a service years ago but auto pay kept rolling along. Clawing back my money was a hassle. Most on-line payments are from my checking account, so it's pretty much one stop shopping.

I will let credit card companies auto pay ("pull") money to pay my bill in full each month.
For others "services" as you call them, I usually set up the auto-pay on my side "push" so I can stop it at any time.

 

[Lion Rock]

Used to keep paper receipts and account statements, but finally couldn't stand the overhead of storing 15+ years of records. in recent years have either signed up for electronic versions or scanned old records in and discarded the paper. Have automated the scanning and storing process somewhat so it's easier to organize the pdfs. Only have a small bit of old records left that I scan in when I have free time.

I have found that I needed to go back to the account statements probably about 10 times in the past few years. Not a lot, but to me it's worth having the records available and searchable (OCR). Just have to make sure to have a good backup solution.

 

[Katsmeow]

DD has taken the next step and takes a picture of each receipt when she gets it and puts in an app on her phone were she also indicates the amount and category, etc. She then can throw out the paper receipt. She then downloads her data from the CC company into Quicken and can look up any transaction as needed in the sorted report generated by the phone app while reconciling her Quicken accounts. I would go that way if there were a phone app I could use to update the Quicken registers with receipt pictures and data directly.

I don't use Quicken (I did but didn't like it). What I do is scan in receipts to a PDF. I have a ScanSnap ix500 sitting on my desk and it is very fast to do the scan. I then OCR the receipts to make them searchable. I keep a copy on my hard drive but also upload them to Evernote. Since they have been OCR'd it is very simple to find any receipt that I need to find. I do discard the paper receipts except things that might need to be returned or are very large purchases.