Barclays App compulsory move to paperless to CONTINUE to account information

IanManc

TheBanker said:

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. 

I don't, and didn't, dispute any of that.  I was simply replying to a comment about the cost of postage.  

GTR_King

TheBanker said:

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. 

I work for Council post room & we have machine Similar to how the Bank prints statements it Does cost Money! 

But if we had to pay for Paper Bank Statements (non online banking Customers free) say for example £1 per page max cost £5-£10 a month,

or for Example if you wanna order copies of statements £1 per page up to £10! 

Then we could get better quality statements etc banks need to make money some how!  

most other countries do it!