Halifax paper-free statements

newsmonkey

Just signed into my online banking at Halifax, and they're advertising the possiblity of receiving all your statements by email instead of post.

Great benefits are mentioned, like, er, you get less paper.

I've gone with this for the time being, but it would have been nicer if they'd offered me a bit of cash for making the switch. Bank saves about a fiver a year - why not give the customer £2.50 as an incentive?

And a (dull) question for the legals amongst us: does a PDF bank statement have the same status as a posted one?

Paul_Varjak

I've just tried to sign up for paperless statements but it's not working!

There is an incentive to signing up - you can win a £17,000 car.

My sister had to prove she had enough money in her account to buy a house. So I transferred £40,00 to her Halifax account from my Halifax account, printed off balance from Internet and then moved the money back again!

She got her house a few days later!

JasonW_2

I wont be doing it as I get nothing at all from them as it is.

Trying to use the online banking just now and its a joke. Lots of random errors and very slow.

JW

Walletwatch

Call me old-fashioned, but I rather have the paper statements anytime, and take out time once a month to neatly put them away in plastic folders, bank-wise. Have always found that bank statements are a wealth of information, and let me reflect on times in the past when I made some not-so-smart investments and incurred some easily avoidable expenses. In fact, old bank statements and credit card bills are not too different from the diary I write on a daily basis.

Yes, yes, I know, you can easily store it on the PC and print it out whenever you feel like, but having to switch on the PC and retrieve a statement to me sounds too much of a bother, as compared to retrieving the relevant document from a file.

Paul_Varjak

Some months ago I received notification from Halifax that I would only get statements every three months. I went online to try and change it to 'monthly' - but that option was not there.

However, I am still getting monthly statements!

Today, when I sign on to my account I am presented with a screen, apparently forcing me to choose paperless statements or continue with paper ones. I did not want to choosew either, suspecting that if I chose paper ones it would then give me quaterly statements - not monthly ones!

Luckily, you can avoid answering the question by pressing the browser's 'back' button and getting to your portfolio screen! I hope by doing that I will continue to get monthly printed statements!

hkw1

I used to be with HSBC and opted for the paper free option. I can't remember what it was I was applying for but they needed some sort of ID but wouldn't accept statements printed off the internet so I ended up going back to having a statement sent every month from the bank.

sunflower_2

what annoyed me was that when you signed into the online banking - it took you straight to the "sign up for paperless banking" page

and from there, it didnt giv you the option of going to the page that you wanted to go to in the first place!!!

Paul_Varjak

sunflower wrote:

what annoyed me was that when you signed into the online banking - it took you straight to the "sign up for paperless banking" page

and from there, it didnt giv you the option of going to the page that you wanted to go to in the first place!!!

You haven't read my earlier post - jusy press the 'back' button in your browser and it will take you to your portfolio - without you having to make a choice! Read my earlier post as to why I did this.

Ivenofinmoney

newsmonkey wrote:

Does a PDF bank statement have the same status as a posted one?

Im not a legal expert, but I am fairly sure the answer to your question is yes, as the traditional paper statement has no status either, some places use them to prove your identity or address, but that's their risk

( I expect they guess that the bank has taken the effort to validate your identity ??)

I have been with CAHOOT for nearly 2 years which is internet only, and never had a problem whenever being asked for a statement, including proof of income & expenditure for a cout appearance (speeding !!)

hope that helps !!

kaz1968

Hi, I got information about the paperless statements when I logged into my Bank of Scotland account online yesterday. Today when I logged in I was taken straight to the Paperless Statement Option Page. Here I was given the option to go paperless or not. I chose to, as I get so much dross in the post, less paper would be a benefit. I get an email from BoS when there is a letter or statment waiting for me and of course I have the option of printing it off if I want to. I have the same option with my electricity supplier which I have had for a few years now and I am intending to do the same with BT. As with the BoS, you get an email to tell you your bill is ready and you have the option to print it off if you wish. I think it is a brilliant idea, saves on trees and postage (for them). Drawback is we don't really reap the benefits of going paperless as the banks etc pocket the difference. I think they should reward everyone who goes paperless with a cashback incentive for every year they are paperless, say £50. I mean, the bank charge you a whopping £30 a letter if they have to tell you you're overdrawn!! why not give some of it back to the customers? I'd like to charge them £30 every time I've got to sort out a screw up because of them! Don't you think that's fair?

student100

I elected to stick with the paper statements for the time being. There's no advantage to me in terms of "you can get your statement quicker" or whatever because I check my account online several times a week anyway. I still keep the paper copy for reference. Why should I have to pay to print the statements myself if the bank will do it for me?

I do have online bills from Accucard and Virgin Mobile, partly because I'm not too bothered about having a printed copy of these (I just keep a saved copy of the electronic ones). But as a printed bank statement is often required as proof of address I might as well keep the ones that the bank will print for me for free...

If they were to give me, say, 50p (or even 30p) per month (it must cost them at least that much to print and mail statements) if I were to go for online statements, then I'd do it, but at the moment there doesn't seem to be any benefit to me and it would cost me 5-10p to print the statements myself if I wanted to.


They could save some money if they stopped sending pointless mail, like I had two letters from them in the last week - mailed on the same day in separate envelopes - one saying "you have just set up telephone banking on your account, why not set up internet banking too" (I have been using their internet banking for years), and the other saying "Here's a list of the payments/money transfers on your account, for future reference" (why tell me this? I can see them online).