Does paperless billing cost you money?

[disneysteve]

Companies love to push paperless billing because it saves them money. They tout it as more convenient for the customer but is it really?

It's been my experience that the bills that I have converted from paper to paperless eventually cost me money because I don't see the bill anymore and things get missed. Yes, I can log into my account and view it, but I just don't. When I get a paper bill, I take a minute to review it and make sure everything is correct. If there's an incorrect charge, I address it right away. With paperless, it's out of sight, out of mind.

Just the other day, I logged into my Xfinity account and discovered that we've been getting billed for 2 digital convertor boxes but we only have 1. That was $5.99/mo. and recently went up to $6.99/mo. I have no idea how far back that error goes because I never see the bill. I don't even get a notice when the bill is issued because they insist on sending the notice to my Xfinity email account, an account which I have never ever used or checked. I called customer service today and got the error corrected. They said they would do a look back on the account and credit us for every month we were double billed. Hopefully that happens as promised. It's my own fault, for sure, but it never would have happened if I got a paper bill. I've already cancelled paperless billing and will go back to getting it in print to prevent future issues.

[Jluke]

I never opt for the paperless billing or the automatic payment.

I like the physical reminder in the mail and wouldn’t ever let the utility companies pull money from my account without me initiating the payment.

I think my cell phone bill is the only one that gets automatically charged to my credit card.

Some months we pay via check in the mail; other times we’ll use the online payment option. Just need to be sure they don’t sneak in a pop up or a box to check that would change our account settings.

electricity, water, cable/internet, insurance. Even car payments and mortgage payments are manually transacted.

[disneysteve]

I’m fine with auto-pay. It’s the paperless bill that gets me in trouble. We have lots of things on auto-pay. I love that convenience.

[creditcardfree]

So you don't get an email with your bill? I would at a minimum need that, but I do understand your point. I pay all credit card bills twice per month, so never late. It is that cable bill that can change, and if you don't log on to specifically look at the bill the charges you mentioned can creep up on you. I'm still a fan of paperless billing, but it has yet to cost me much money if any.

[disneysteve]

So you don't get an email with your bill?

They only email my Xfinity email account which I don't use at all so I never see the message.

[creditcardfree]

They only email my Xfinity email account which I don't use at all so I never see the message.

That is unfortunate. Very hard to remember without some sort of reminder. I'd look into seeing if you can change it. ATT gave us an email, but we have our bill sent to my regular email account.

[Thrif-t]

I don't use paperless! DH is practically computer illiterate and if anything happened to me he wouldn't be comfortable logging on a bunch of sites or even in my email to get a bill.

Plus I had a coworker that was single, no kids who recently died and her niece had a heck of a time paying things for her because she didn't get any bills and didn't have her email password written down. So there's that.

[greenskeeper]

Companies love to push paperless billing because it saves them money. They tout it as more convenient for the customer but is it really?

It's been my experience that the bills that I have converted from paper to paperless eventually cost me money because I don't see the bill anymore and things get missed. Yes, I can log into my account and view it, but I just don't. When I get a paper bill, I take a minute to review it and make sure everything is correct. If there's an incorrect charge, I address it right away. With paperless, it's out of sight, out of mind.

Just the other day, I logged into my Xfinity account and discovered that we've been getting billed for 2 digital convertor boxes but we only have 1. That was $5.99/mo. and recently went up to $6.99/mo. I have no idea how far back that error goes because I never see the bill. I don't even get a notice when the bill is issued because they insist on sending the notice to my Xfinity email account, an account which I have never ever used or checked. I called customer service today and got the error corrected. They said they would do a look back on the account and credit us for every month we were double billed. Hopefully that happens as promised. It's my own fault, for sure, but it never would have happened if I got a paper bill. I've already cancelled paperless billing and will go back to getting it in print to prevent future issues.

Change your account to your normal email account so you get the bill via email.

I have verizon (fios) that has an account email as well, but I changed the notification setting to my normal email account so no surprises there.

P.S. comcast sucks !

[alliecat79]

Disney Steve, you raise a really good point about making sure to review those bills every month. I am paperless more so due to my worries about the environment. I hate throwing stuff away or putting things in the recycling bin only to expend more energy on recycling. I recently found out I can compost paper, but do I really want to compost all of my personal financial information? Not really. Especially given we use our city's program. But I SHOULD begin reviewing those bills monthly.

[Smallsteps]

I don't use paperless! DH is practically computer illiterate and if anything happened to me he wouldn't be comfortable logging on a bunch of sites or even in my email to get a bill.

Plus I had a coworker that was single, no kids who recently died and her niece had a heck of a time paying things for her because she didn't get any bills and didn't have her email password written down. So there's that.

I guess I never really thought about death or maybe a issue where you are unable to take care of this.
While I have paperless for a couple bills and they notify me by email I do not think if something happened to myself that DH would have access he has enough trouble remembering all his log ins.

[disneysteve]

The paperless stuff is a problem when someone dies. I've seen a number of stories about that. There was one in AARP magazine just recently. Even if they are joint accounts, if one person handles things, as typically happens, the surviving spouse is running into a lot of trouble accessing things if they don't know the log in, password, security questions, etc.

As for my cable bill, I switched back to a paper bill. It's so much faster and easier to review that than to have to log in to my account and pull it up in there.

[creditcardfree]

I don't use paperless! DH is practically computer illiterate and if anything happened to me he wouldn't be comfortable logging on a bunch of sites or even in my email to get a bill.

Plus I had a coworker that was single, no kids who recently died and her niece had a heck of a time paying things for her because she didn't get any bills and didn't have her email password written down. So there's that.

I have thought of that with my husband. I recently told him the password to my Macbook Pro. That would allow him to find my email account and our YNAB program. This is such a good reminder to have something in place to communicate accounts and bills for the one who doesn't do the finances.

[Thrif-t]

I have a spiral notebook in my safe that lists everything! Websites, user names, passwords...I updated everything for 2018. I write everything in pencil so I can erase and change things. One thing on my list for 2019 is composing a letter with more detailed instructions.

I think that will make it easier for my family than just a book of websites and passwords.

I have a bank account that DH has no clue what's in it. Not like I haven't tried to educate him, but he's not interested...just tells me to write it in the book

[Jluke]

I code my passwords in my master list.

For instance

Drink##

Is equal to

Whiskey21


now I just need to figure out how to communicate the decoding system.

[~bs]

not opting for paperless is nice until they decide to start charging you for it. And a lot of companies are.- to force people paperless