Does paperless billing cost you money?

[scfr]

Only my cell phone bill is paperless - I don't have a choice on that. I prefer paper bills for the "scrutiny factor," plus we keep a lot of our bills in our tax file (home office deduction).

[Captain Save]

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.

Well paperless billing has a different effect on my habits..

I barely check my mail now. If I see mail.. i think it's spam cause everything I have is paperless. As far as bills go .. they all are exact amounts. the minute that bill changes, I'm logging in. so if I was supposed to get charged for one box and they change the billing I would definitely notice. cause I budget everything on mint.

[Gailete]

I refuse to do paperless billing. With business being run from our home, I want those bills as proof of what they were if we ever get audited. However, I do pay most of my bills online except for one that I simply can not figure out how to get into the account so I pay via the phone. I only have a few items that are paid automatically and those are my health insurance items. My Medigap supplement gives me $2 off a month for auto billing (saves me $24/year x the last 12 years). I will only okay an auto payment if I can decide when the payday would be, at least after the first of the month since my SS check comes on a schedule but not the same date day every month. The garbage company wanted to bill us to make payments online as they wanted automatic billing, but their rates changed quarterly so I never would know what they were going to grab due to 'fuel surcharges' or when they would. That isn't for me, especially when the checkbook gets a bit bare. So I scratched garbage bills and hubby burns the garbage when he can. I do my bank account reconciling often and from the computer and my register. I don't need that printout.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Yes it's painful to have to constantly check my bills