Utility and credit card bills--snail mail or e-statements?

[frugalone]

I've been doing a lot of cleaning out of old paperwork, and I tend to save utility bills, credit card bills and bank statements for way too long. With my banks, I've recently switched to e-statements. I pay my bills online as well.

However, there's something holding me back regarding having e-statements for my bills. I guess I don't trust cyberspace. Things can go amiss, end up in the spam folder, etc. I've had that happen with one account.

I have no fear of having stuff stolen from my mailbox. Do you see any advantage to having the bills e-mailed to me? I recycle paper when I can.

What do you do?

[goldensmom]

I resisted for years but do everything online now. I have a list of all my bills (I don't wait for s-statements) and pay them with a cup of coffee, sitting in front of the TV, in my robe, once a month and I am done with it all in 10 minutes. No problems in the 7/8 years that I have been doing it this way.

[frugalone]

I know people who won't even use ATMs or do any type of online banking, including my mom. Perhaps I'm being too superstitious!


I resisted for years but do everything online now. I have a list of all my bills (I don't wait for s-statements) and pay them with a cup of coffee, sitting in front of the TV, in my robe, once a month and I am done with it all in 10 minutes. No problems in the 7/8 years that I have been doing it this way.

[frugal-one]

I've been doing a lot of cleaning out of old paperwork, and I tend to save utility bills, credit card bills and bank statements for way too long. With my banks, I've recently switched to e-statements. I pay my bills online as well.

However, there's something holding me back regarding having e-statements for my bills. I guess I don't trust cyberspace. Things can go amiss, end up in the spam folder, etc. I've had that happen with one account.

I have no fear of having stuff stolen from my mailbox. Do you see any advantage to having the bills e-mailed to me? I recycle paper when I can.

What do you do?

I am with you in that I have paper bills sent to me. I too, pay bills on line. I don't always use the same credit card and can just imagine not getting a statement.......

[Tybee]

I like paper bills and we send them for the most part, although we will stop at Lowe's and pay it in person, and I pay my Visa online.

[JaneV2.0]

Having had mail--packages--stolen from my mailbox, and now relying on a PO box, I'm toying with the idea of switching over to bill-pay through my credit union. I already pay my CU Visa on line, and that works well.

[sweetana3]

I think we pay everything online. For auto payments, we use one credit card that never leaves the house. We accumulate points on Amazon Visa. Others are used only occasionally. Works well for hubby. Our credit union is so easy to work with. Totally different experience that with any commercial bank.

Note: we have immediate access to all financial activities online. Husband gets immediate email notifications of all account activity over his preset $$ amounts. We once were notified of a duplicate charge before the company even got record of the mistake and were able to call them within 4 hours to tell them to fix it.

We also keep everything simple and easy to control. No multiple accounts or multiple credit cards. Always paid off in full every month. We get nothing on paper except for the mandatory privacy notices and other required notices. The only bills we get on paper are our natural gas bill, insurance bills, and the real estate tax bill.

[Gardnr]

Everything possible is online statements and setup autopay. What is not autopay we also pay electronically from our checking account. Surely we've saved an entire tree already.

Use a good security system on your PC/laptop, a quality antivirus and complex passwords.

DH does security for a state agency so I trust his guidance in all things electronic.

[ToomuchStuff]

Snail mail user here. With snail mail, I still have federal mail restrictions/protections.
Over the years, I have had computers die, internet connection problems, dealt with relatives that did stupid stuff (easy passwords, etc), as well as those that had a ransom attack.
Also, if it were online, and I had a smart phone (I don't), then personally, knowing what I know (between loss of cell phones, theft, cloning, possible search issues), it is a one stop shop to get your information, or give those free access to it, without a warrant.
I still have a credit card, and a debit card, but am strongly leaning towards getting rid of the credit card, after the last couple issues. (a charge on one, that was an unused, replacement card, for one that was stolen, and they had the number, date, and ccv code from it) Me thinks someone working at the CC company, was selling off info.

[CathyA]

I LOVE paying bills online. I get statements online too, which I can print off for my own records. I figure that uses less resources than receiving them through snail mail, delivered by the post office.
I've never had any issues. You can set up payments with the company you're paying (utilities/insurances/medical, etc.), but I find it a bit safer to pay them through my bank.....where the company doesn't have my checking account number.
I do, however have a couple monthly/quarterly auto-deductions from either my bank account, or credit card. I really love not having to write checks, making out envelopes and putting stamps on, and then going down our long lane to the mailbox.

[TVRodriguez]

We pay most things online, whether the bill comes by mail or not. We only use one joint credit card and one joint checking account for all non-business expenses, so that's easy to track. Each of us has a business account, and we both use online payment for lots of things when possible.

One time one of our accounts was hacked, but we check our accounts almost daily so we caught it and got it fixed right away. Minor hassle.

[pinkytoe]

Almost entirely online though we have had some issues with new accounts since moving. I received a discount for automatic billing when we set up our new internet account. When it hadn't appeared on my bank statement a few days later, I called and they said it never went through even though I had received a confirmation email. Proceeded to charge me a $25 late fee and $3 processing fee for paying it on the phone. That sucks! And now as a new landlord, my tenant wanted to continue with the online rent portal she had been using. It took six days for her rent payment to hit the bank and the company charged me a $3 fee. Needless to say, I am telling my tenant that we are going to use old-fashioned checks from here on out which I can deposit right away with my phone.

[frugalone]

You're very nice that you let your tenant pay with a personal check. Despite having lived in our house nearly 20 years, and never having bounced a check with our landlady, just because another tenant bounced a check once, we have to to go to the post office and get a money order to pay her every month.


Almost entirely online though we have had some issues with new accounts since moving. I received a discount for automatic billing when we set up our new internet account. When it hadn't appeared on my bank statement a few days later, I called and they said it never went through even though I had received a confirmation email. Proceeded to charge me a $25 late fee and $3 processing fee for paying it on the phone. That sucks! And now as a new landlord, my tenant wanted to continue with the online rent portal she had been using. It took six days for her rent payment to hit the bank and the company charged me a $3 fee. Needless to say, I am telling my tenant that we are going to use old-fashioned checks from here on out which I can deposit right away with my phone.

[TVRodriguez]

frugalone and pinkytoe, your comments about rent made me think of Venmo. It's an app that I use to pay the room moms at school who front the money for events and teacher gifts. Since they're always asking for $5 or $10 (or $20 or $30), and since I have 3 kids in different classes, it was hard to keep track of all of the requests and payments, plus I didn't always have cash on hand, and one time my envelope with cash got "lost" mysteriously at school. Last year I paid by check, but that was not so well-received, plus it took forever for them to cash the checks so I'd have 5 different outstanding checks for small amounts--that was bothersome. So this school year, I got the room moms to agree to use an app to accept payments in addition to the cash option. They decided on venmo, which doesn't charge anything for transfers from one bank account to another. They do charge 3% if you're using a credit card, which is what I do. I don't mind paying 30 cents to get my $10 donation for the Holiday show outfits to the moms who fronted the money and who are doing the work. I wonder if this could work for your tenants/landlady.

[Greg44]

I pay everything I can online. We can now even pay our tithing to the Church online now ;-) I rank it as the best innovation in the banking industry! B U T...I still like getting my paper statements. The only online statement I get is our cell phone bill. I like keeping statements - so I figure I can use their ink and paper! :-)