Paperless Banking - Disadvantages

colsten

I use Lastpass, which allows you to nominate people who can request access to your Lastpass store. Lastpass will notify me (on an email I specify) of any request to access my password store. If I don't decline such a request, Lastpass will allow the requester to access my password store after a predefined (by me) period of time. I have the people who have PoA for me set up so they can request access. 

Time4T_Accounts

Thank you, that’s very helpful.  I’ll take a look at Lastpass.

brianposter

The biggest disadvantage at the moment is that banks and companies are not required to make documents available after an account has been closed (although a SAR will presumably obtain the documents).

There needs to be a law requiring documents to be readily available for at least two years.

Eco_Miser

Paper statements opt-in at TSB from September. From email

From September, we’re switching our regular Internet Banking and Mobile Banking App customers to fully paperless. This change will only be for your savings and current accounts. It won’t affect any other type of TSB account you have.

colsten

Good initiative from TSB. (Let's hope their systems survive this change without any outages 🤞)

elsien

I don't like paperless banking. Or rather, I'm happy to do most thing online but I do prefer to have paper statements and bills, not just for banking but for utilities, phone etc.
If I get a paper bill, I open it and check it pretty much straight away. 
If I get an email to say "your bill is now ready to view" I think ok, I'll come back to that at some point when I've got time to crank up the desktop, log into the account, find and download the bill, print it off (because I can read paper ones more easily), and because it's more of a faff I end up leaving it a couple of months at which point I remember I've forgotten to cancel the free Amazon Prime trial or whatever.

I'm sure paperless works fine for a lot of people. I'm tech savvy but finances just work better on paper for me. My preference would be for there to be the choice. 

naedanger

ukhuman1st said:

I have a number of online savings accounts which over the years now pay so little interest that I've virtually cleared them out bar a pound or two. But according to the online banks I use, I cannot actually close the accounts without visiting the branch which is a hassle. Occasionally interest is added and I get an annual paper statement showing tiny balances, sometimes of even just a few pence. However, many banks are now strong-arming us to go paperless and there is a risk that these dormant accounts could just get forgotten. I wonder how many people will in the future die leaving no paper-trail for their relatives to identify these accounts? Indeed, without paper records, even larger sums could be overlooked if people don't print off their statements etc themselves. For the customer, this would seem to rather negate the point of going paperless. For the banks, they save postage and maybe end up with accounts with unclaimed balances when customers die.  Does anyone know what happens to these? Personally I'd rather continue receiving paper statements as I manage all the finances for my wife and me and it is at least one way she can see what's going on. Should we not be able to keep this option - I could not access an old Halifax account today without agreeing to go paperless so the pressure is definitely on.

If it is too much hassle for you to close these accounts for a pound or two then the same is going to apply, but much more so, for your executor or administrator. 

colsten

elsien said:

If I get a paper bill, I open it and check it pretty much straight away. 
If I get an email to say "your bill is now ready to view" I think ok, I'll come back to that at some point when I've got time to crank up the desktop, log into the account, find and download the bill,

I get my emails on the same device(s) I have my banking apps or online banking on. I usually use the app now rather than online banking as I find it way more convenient to log into an app than into online banking. There is nothing that stops me from opening my app and looking at a statement (or other document), as this is actually faster than opening an envelope. There is also nothing that stops me from keeping the email unactioned, just as there is nothing that stops me from keeping an envelope unopened (particularly if I am not actually at home).

I very rarely look at statements as I record my transactions anyway, I never get overdrawn, and I can look at my transactions 24x7 anyway, so I know before I get a statement what's on them. Modern banks like Starling have completely done away with producing statements for their customers - if you want a statement, you can generate one yourself.

The concept of a monthly bank statement is getting more and more old fashioned IMO.

elsien said:

I'm sure paperless works fine for a lot of people. 

You are correct.

elsien said:

My preference would be for there to be the choice. 

There is one now with most banks and BSs, and I am sure there will still be one for the foreseeable future. All companies are, however, increasingly encouraging their customers to go paperless, and I see this trend increasing and accelerating as everybody becomes more environmentally conscious.

Andy7856

 For the banks, they save postage and maybe end up with accounts with unclaimed balances when customers die.  Does anyone know what happens to these? 

To answer that point, when I worked for a large insurance company years back, we used to have a "Orphan Account" basically all the life policies, pensions, matured investment products that had not been claimed and reasonable attempts had been made to track down the policy holders - sat in this account.  It contained hundreds of thousands, possibly millions - all unclaimed.      The company would often try to track you down via your bank details (ie any direct debits), and ask the bank to forward on their correspondence.  Pretty sure banks used the same approach for their own "Orphan Accounts" 

Gers

I recently had to set up a special circumstances redirection of mail.  The list of documents Royal Mail requires made it very difficult for me to do:

Applying at a Post Office®
1 valid proof of new address from this list dated in the last 6 months:

Original utility bill (NOT a mobile phone / store / charge cardstatement or bill printed from the internet)
Original credit card statement
Original mortgage statement
Original bank or building society statement or passbook

I phoned Royal Mail about my lack of original documents, the agent was adamant that I needed to produce the required documents or it couldn't be done - and a special circumstances rediretion can't be done online. My way round this extremely frustrating situation was to go to a PO where the staff knew me and accepted a letter to me from HMRC.

I heartily agree with the drive towards being paperless, however it needs to be fully accepted by organisations before the change can be fully effective.