Barclays App compulsory move to paperless to CONTINUE to account information

GTR_King

I prefer paper statements & have had this message before! But will always keep them till I am forced! 

Section62

Nasqueron said:

There is an argument now that printing documents should be a chargeable service given all the information is available digitally and can be seen in app, browser etc - along with real time transactions, waiting for the end of a month and then waiting for a paper statement to turn up is risking fraud going unnoticed plus the security / ID risk of paper statements. 

Likewise there's an argument that online/digital access should be a chargeable service, given the cost of developing and running the services in the face of ever-increasing security threats, along with the economic and environmental costs of the energy consumption involved.  Also the cost of refunding customers who've been duped into using online/digital banking to transfer money to scammers, plus the security/ID risk of having extensive online access to personal data.

It seems one of those agruments gets quite a lot more support here than the other one, but that doesn't mean both aren't equally valid if the banks decide they want to claw back more money for providing 'free' banking.  I have to wonder whether those who would be quite happy for paper statements to be chargeable would be so welcoming of charges for online/digital access?

Nasqueron

Section62 said:

Nasqueron said:

There is an argument now that printing documents should be a chargeable service given all the information is available digitally and can be seen in app, browser etc - along with real time transactions, waiting for the end of a month and then waiting for a paper statement to turn up is risking fraud going unnoticed plus the security / ID risk of paper statements. 

Likewise there's an argument that online/digital access should be a chargeable service, given the cost of developing and running the services in the face of ever-increasing security threats, along with the economic and environmental costs of the energy consumption involved.  Also the cost of refunding customers who've been duped into using online/digital banking to transfer money to scammers, plus the security/ID risk of having extensive online access to personal data.

It seems one of those agruments gets quite a lot more support here than the other one, but that doesn't mean both aren't equally valid if the banks decide they want to claw back more money for providing 'free' banking.  I have to wonder whether those who would be quite happy for paper statements to be chargeable would be so welcoming of charges for online/digital access?

The infrastructure of running the app / website exists regardless, nobody would charge for this as people would simply use another bank who didn't. You already have access to the statement as part of that.

Statements are optional and are absolutely not required and yes, someone requiring the bank to (effectively) chop down trees and post out paper when all the information is available online is a separate addon. Further, statements can be printed at home if someone is desperate to have a paper copy of what is shown on screen. Given the cost, the fraud risk / ID theft risks of relying on paper, especially those who don't use digital services and thus don't see statements until month end, charging for said optional extra is completely different and not equally valid. Same principle of people refusing to use services like paying in cheques online and wanting to do it in branch.

Plenty of countries charge for banking full stop and yes, charge for statements as well, paper copies are not necessary in this day and age, they are a preference 

saajan_12

Section62 said:

Nasqueron said:

There is an argument now that printing documents should be a chargeable service given all the information is available digitally and can be seen in app, browser etc - along with real time transactions, waiting for the end of a month and then waiting for a paper statement to turn up is risking fraud going unnoticed plus the security / ID risk of paper statements. 

Likewise there's an argument that online/digital access should be a chargeable service, given the cost of developing and running the services in the face of ever-increasing security threats, along with the economic and environmental costs of the energy consumption involved.  Also the cost of refunding customers who've been duped into using online/digital banking to transfer money to scammers, plus the security/ID risk of having extensive online access to personal data.

It seems one of those agruments gets quite a lot more support here than the other one, but that doesn't mean both aren't equally valid if the banks decide they want to claw back more money for providing 'free' banking.  I have to wonder whether those who would be quite happy for paper statements to be chargeable would be so welcoming of charges for online/digital access?

They can't provide banking without *a* method to see balances, instruct payments, open & close accounts, etc. The options aren't just paper statements v online banking, as the former doesn't provide for actually making payments and interacting with the bank. Without online banking, they'd need many more branches and call centres, with personnel costs, energy, etc which overall is more expensive than the digital access. Servers to host data within the bank and communicate with other banks still exist, security threats still exist. 

In order to scale all the branches back, they need to support online banking, and once built the incremental cost is negligible to add more people. However to send out postal statements there is a cost every time. 

mab3000

Harrhy said:

I have just tried to log in to Barclays online banking and would be forced to go paperless if I continued to our account. My account is held jointly with my husband who does not use the internet or a mobile phone. We have printed statements so that he knows the details of our financial matters. 
We used to be able to pop down to the bank to print off a statement before they closed most of the branches.
I assume this login page will disappear at some point or that there will be some escape route. I'm not holding my breath.

Even if this message does force you to change your preferences to online statements, you can easily change this setting back to paper statements at any time (including straight away) within online banking. I’m currently paperless myself and have been since opening the account,  but I’ve just checked both my online banking and app and can easily change to paper if I wanted to. 

TheBanker

Worth noting that this thread started a year ago, probably triggered by one of the companies that handle secure printing for banks going into administration. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-67844150

According to the administrators, the group, which provided services for the UK's largest financial and public institutions, had been experiencing "challenging trading conditions" for some time.

These included declining volumes in the wake of the emergence of digital technologies and increased costs of production.

Printing bank statements costs more than just the paper and postage - because of the confidential nature of the information there needs to be security measures in the print works, to avoid fraud and avoid issues such as different people's bank statements getting mixed up. And as the above illustrates, as more and more customers opt for digital, the cost per statement will increase. 

GTR_King

I am happy to pay for paper bank statements & it costs more to print statements than do online banking! Due to the security issues etc! Or charge for duplicate statements! 

But for now I am happy with paper statements

WillPS

Section62 said:

Nasqueron said:

There is an argument now that printing documents should be a chargeable service given all the information is available digitally and can be seen in app, browser etc - along with real time transactions, waiting for the end of a month and then waiting for a paper statement to turn up is risking fraud going unnoticed plus the security / ID risk of paper statements. 

Likewise there's an argument that online/digital access should be a chargeable service, given the cost of developing and running the services in the face of ever-increasing security threats, along with the economic and environmental costs of the energy consumption involved.  Also the cost of refunding customers who've been duped into using online/digital banking to transfer money to scammers, plus the security/ID risk of having extensive online access to personal data.

It seems one of those agruments gets quite a lot more support here than the other one, but that doesn't mean both aren't equally valid if the banks decide they want to claw back more money for providing 'free' banking.  I have to wonder whether those who would be quite happy for paper statements to be chargeable would be so welcoming of charges for online/digital access?

Sunk costs tho. The postage on printed statements alone is £1 a time, which is probably the highest cost a bank might have to plump for with a current account, after the debit card issuance costs.

The cost of providing a digital service is orders of magnitude cheaper than the extensive branch network they once had.

IanManc

WillPS said:

Section62 said:

Nasqueron said:

There is an argument now that printing documents should be a chargeable service given all the information is available digitally and can be seen in app, browser etc - along with real time transactions, waiting for the end of a month and then waiting for a paper statement to turn up is risking fraud going unnoticed plus the security / ID risk of paper statements. 

Likewise there's an argument that online/digital access should be a chargeable service, given the cost of developing and running the services in the face of ever-increasing security threats, along with the economic and environmental costs of the energy consumption involved.  Also the cost of refunding customers who've been duped into using online/digital banking to transfer money to scammers, plus the security/ID risk of having extensive online access to personal data.

It seems one of those agruments gets quite a lot more support here than the other one, but that doesn't mean both aren't equally valid if the banks decide they want to claw back more money for providing 'free' banking.  I have to wonder whether those who would be quite happy for paper statements to be chargeable would be so welcoming of charges for online/digital access?

Sunk costs tho. The postage on printed statements alone is £1 a time, which is probably the highest cost a bank might have to plump for with a current account, after the debit card issuance costs.

The cost of providing a digital service is orders of magnitude cheaper than the extensive branch network they once had.

For second class business post the postage cost is between 31.1p and 32.8p per letter, depending on the volume of items posted. These rates are available if the business presorts the mail between the 86 mail centres before handing it over to Royal Mail - a task which is fully automated in the printing centres where bank statements are produced.

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2024-10/retail-letters-price-guide-october-2024-v1.pdf

TheBanker

IanManc said:

WillPS said:

Section62 said:

Nasqueron said:

There is an argument now that printing documents should be a chargeable service given all the information is available digitally and can be seen in app, browser etc - along with real time transactions, waiting for the end of a month and then waiting for a paper statement to turn up is risking fraud going unnoticed plus the security / ID risk of paper statements. 

Likewise there's an argument that online/digital access should be a chargeable service, given the cost of developing and running the services in the face of ever-increasing security threats, along with the economic and environmental costs of the energy consumption involved.  Also the cost of refunding customers who've been duped into using online/digital banking to transfer money to scammers, plus the security/ID risk of having extensive online access to personal data.

It seems one of those agruments gets quite a lot more support here than the other one, but that doesn't mean both aren't equally valid if the banks decide they want to claw back more money for providing 'free' banking.  I have to wonder whether those who would be quite happy for paper statements to be chargeable would be so welcoming of charges for online/digital access?

Sunk costs tho. The postage on printed statements alone is £1 a time, which is probably the highest cost a bank might have to plump for with a current account, after the debit card issuance costs.

The cost of providing a digital service is orders of magnitude cheaper than the extensive branch network they once had.

For second class business post the postage cost is between 31.1p and 32.8p per letter, depending on the volume of items posted. These rates are available if the business presorts the mail between the 86 mail centres before handing it over to Royal Mail - a task which is fully automated in the printing centres where bank statements are produced.

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2024-10/retail-letters-price-guide-october-2024-v1.pdf

The sorting of statements is automated, but someone has to pay for the machine, the power to operate the machine and the man or woman to attend to it. 

When I last looked, the bank I work for applied an internal costing of just over £1 to a bank statement. That covers the cost of printing, packaging, posting. It's an average, obviously a statement that runs to three pages will cost more than a single sheet.