Trresh Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I rarely look at the paper bills. 9 times out of 10 if I want to know the particulars I look it up online. I wanted to know what you all thought before I made the switch. Also, what about bank statements?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheryl h Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I usually pay all the bills online, but having the paper copy gives me peace of mind that if for some unforseen reason my computer poops out or the power is out for an extended length of time, I can view bills and pay them via snail mail. The thought of being completely reliant on the internet/computer for this completely stresses me out. I say do both, same with bank statements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mona100 Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I rarely look at the paper bills. 9 times out of 10 if I want to know the particulars I look it up online. I wanted to know what you all thought before I made the switch. Also, what about bank statements?? I know my bank has now started charging $5 a month for snail mail bank statements. You can get them online and print them off there if you are worried about it. If your computer goes out, you could pay by phone. If the power is out for an extended amount of time, I have bigger things to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meggie Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Our gas and electric company now charge a processing fee for online payments. So we pay those with a check. 44 cent stamp (or whatever it's at now) is saves us $2-3. I'm leery enough to always copy the transaction code when I pay online though. DH thinks it's silly bc it's never been a problem. I'm not about to trust computers to always get things right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimtaxi234 Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I have been paying my bills online for years (USAA) and I can't imagine doing anything else. I have explained to our children how their grandparents and I used to open bills, write checks, seal the envelops, and add stamps, but since they have never seen me write out checks they were clueless about what I was talking about (sadly this was just this week). I am putting together a little unit study for them to get some practice to better understand the process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamaTanya Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I usually pay all the bills online, but having the paper copy gives me peace of mind that if for some unforseen reason my computer poops out or the power is out for an extended length of time, I can view bills and pay them via snail mail. The thought of being completely reliant on the internet/computer for this completely stresses me out. I say do both, same with bank statements. Thisis what I do. I save a stamp by paying online, and I check balances often. However, I like having the paper bill and writing "PAID" with the date to file away. I don't like electronic organizers, either. I tried one and it never really clicked. I carry my paper one around with me all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trresh Posted November 10, 2011 Author Share Posted November 10, 2011 I pay any bill that can be paid online...online. I, too, write down the confirmation numbers. I think I'll go ahead and switch over to paperless. It seems like such a waste of paper considering I don't even look at them and during my recent house cleaning rescue mission a ton of my clutter was unopened mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myeightkiddies Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 When I ran my business I wanted paper to use for extra records. Now that I retired, I will probably go paperless as I don't need the extra records, and I like to not waste paper. Plus it will help with identity theft (though that happens online too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clementine Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I pay all of our bills online, but I love having the paper copy for my records. I have no idea why, just habit I suppose. Every month when I pay my bill, I write on the paper bill the date paid and the amount. I replace the current one with the old one & throw the old one away. I guess it is just comforting to me to have a physical copy of it. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Our gas and electric company now charge a processing fee for online payments. So we pay those with a check. 44 cent stamp (or whatever it's at now) is saves us $2-3. I'm leery enough to always copy the transaction code when I pay online though. DH thinks it's silly bc it's never been a problem. I'm not about to trust computers to always get things right. We pay our gas and electric--all our bills--on-line through our bank, instead of individually to the payees. The bank sends paper checks to some businesses, pays electronically to some. No extra fees for me. And I've been paying on-line through the bank for probably 10 years, and have never had any problems at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Just be sure that you have your account numbers and passwords written down somewhere. This would be a huge issue if you died or if you had any kind of medical emergency where a family member had to temporarily act as your power of attorney. I'm currently executor for an estate where the deceased had gone entirely to paperless billing. What a nightmare! Without paper bills, you (as the executor or power-of-attorney) don't have any information or account numbers to go on. Without having those numbers and passwords written down somewhere, it is horrible to try to sort out where somebody had accounts and financial obligations. I actually cold-called every satellite company I could think of after noticing a dish perched on the outside of her house (too far up to tell what company). I finally found the right one. She was 3 months into a 2 year satellite contract and there was not a single scrap of paper anywhere in the house to indicate it. We continue to get paper bills for this very reason, although a spreadsheet with a list of companies, account numbers, and passwords could serve the same purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I pay pretty much all our bills through the individual accounts websites. I used to pay some one-time or unusual bills through our banks bill-pay service but they screwed up a few and I won't do that anymore. I keep track of the bills I've paid by writing them in my check book with the date, the amount paid and the confirmation numbers. I also get confirmation emails for most of them. I did keep at least one paper copy of a bill when we first switched over (or one of the miscellaneous notifications they still occasionally send) so that I have all the account details off-line somewhere. I have a spreadsheets set up by paycheck with a list of all the bills that need to be paid each pay period, what amount I want to pay and how much will be left from the paycheck when everything is paid, so I don't need the reminder. I have a separate file with all the passwords written down. Other than the few problems with my bank, I've never had any trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillian Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I usually pay all the bills online, but having the paper copy gives me peace of mind that if for some unforseen reason my computer poops out or the power is out for an extended length of time, I can view bills and pay them via snail mail. The thought of being completely reliant on the internet/computer for this completely stresses me out. I say do both, same with bank statements. This. I like having the paper copy in case I lose access to my account for whatever reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaxMom Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 (edited) We pay our gas and electric--all our bills--on-line through our bank, instead of individually to the payees. The bank sends paper checks to some businesses, pays electronically to some. No extra fees for me. And I've been paying on-line through the bank for probably 10 years, and have never had any problems at all. We do, too. The utilities who don't have an electronic agreement and send the bill directly to my credit union account still have an ebill option and email it to me. When the CU sends out payments, they send me an email with the companies, amounts and confirmation numbers. I use Gmail, and have filters that move all such items to their proper labels. Plus, Gmail is really searchable, so I can find pretty much anything easily, even without labels. The one exception is our water bill, but that's because our town office is less than competent. Edited November 10, 2011 by MyCrazyHouse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mona100 Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Just be sure that you have your account numbers and passwords written down somewhere. This would be a huge issue if you died or if you had any kind of medical emergency where a family member had to temporarily act as your power of attorney. I'm currently executor for an estate where the deceased had gone entirely to paperless billing. What a nightmare! Without paper bills, you (as the executor or power-of-attorney) don't have any information or account numbers to go on. Without having those numbers and passwords written down somewhere, it is horrible to try to sort out where somebody had accounts and financial obligations. I actually cold-called every satellite company I could think of after noticing a dish perched on the outside of her house (too far up to tell what company). I finally found the right one. She was 3 months into a 2 year satellite contract and there was not a single scrap of paper anywhere in the house to indicate it. We continue to get paper bills for this very reason, although a spreadsheet with a list of companies, account numbers, and passwords could serve the same purpose. My dad has a folder in his house that is called "passwords" for this for reason. He has shown me where it is so if anything happens to him I can figure everything out. I also found out they still had my SS#. I know that's my dad but it made me feel a little weird you know. But I figured if anything happened to me, they could go by my SS#. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Paper, all the way. Luddite, I know. Long, long ago the bank lost a huge deposit on us. Thankfully we had a little slip of paper proving we did indeed make the deposit. We're staunch paper people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigger Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 (edited) What we have paper copies of sent so it's filed away in case we need it: Life insurance Disability insurance Car insurance Property tax Real property tax Credit card statements (business expenses on some, so we keep them) Bank statements (both personal and business) Cell phone bill (business) Water (only because they don't have online options to view & pay) 401(k) and investments All of the above, with the exception of our water bill, I pay online and just file the paper statement away...most of the above are needed in case we're audited (I don't want to have to pay for statements or not be able to go back years if needed online). Bills we have no paper copy for, just online access and payment: Gas Electric Phone/Dish/Internet Car payment (before we paid it off) Edited November 10, 2011 by Tigger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigger Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Just be sure that you have your account numbers and passwords written down somewhere. This would be a huge issue if you died or if you had any kind of medical emergency where a family member had to temporarily act as your power of attorney. I'm currently executor for an estate where the deceased had gone entirely to paperless billing. What a nightmare! Without paper bills, you (as the executor or power-of-attorney) don't have any information or account numbers to go on. Without having those numbers and passwords written down somewhere, it is horrible to try to sort out where somebody had accounts and financial obligations. I actually cold-called every satellite company I could think of after noticing a dish perched on the outside of her house (too far up to tell what company). I finally found the right one. She was 3 months into a 2 year satellite contract and there was not a single scrap of paper anywhere in the house to indicate it. We continue to get paper bills for this very reason, although a spreadsheet with a list of companies, account numbers, and passwords could serve the same purpose. Like another poster's dad, we have a file that has our account numbers, passwords and the like put away just in case anything happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginevra Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 I've just recently put a few things on auto-pay. It's paid on my credit card, which is working for me. I was considering aiming towards having my dh's businesses go as paperless as I can manage because I think it's crazy that we generate and store cases full of paper when we hardly ever have to look at the paper bills after they are paid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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