Keep Physical Documents Says UK government

Descrabled

The AI minister recommends keeping physical copies of bank statements, credit card statements, etc. to protect yourself against loss of access to computer systems as shown after the PHP problems.

So the government suggests that we do not rely on being able to access our statements through the various banking computer systems but instead have a physical, i.e. paper, copy.

This means that we should have documents delivered to us by post or, at the very least, print paper copies of important documents to be able to view them should when computer systems become unavailable. Security experts expect many more coding vulnerabilities to become evident by the use of AI.

I'm not going to spend my money printing off monthly statements when banks will send them by post.

flaneurs_lobster

The AI minister recommends keeping physical copies of bank statements, credit card statements, etc. to protect yourself against loss of access to computer systems as shown after the PHP problems.

I hope that is not an actual quote (or even a precis) of what a Government Minister has said because it's utter bollox.

Exactly how does having some bits of paper "protect" you against a loss of access to computer systems?

friolento

I think I heard him say it in an interview with Sky News. Obviously I do have records (with automatic backups) of my various accounts - but paper statements for all of them? Most certainly not, and this will not change.

Not sure whether he means the financial services providers don’t have appropriate backup and disaster recovery procedures in place?

UKX69

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6688033/keep-physical-documents-says-uk-government

FWIW, I always insist on hard copies of everything if at all possible, you never know when you might need them. Example; some banks and building societies insist on seeing original paper copies of statements to verify I.D when opening accounts.

Descrabled

AI Minister Kanishka Narayan was yesterday discussing on Sky the lessons to be learnt from the PHP issues.

He was talking about security issues and what precautions the general public should take.

See also the recommendations to keep cash as well as gallons of water available should services be lost.

Descrabled

I believe the electricity grid, generation, and distribution are increasingly controlled by computer systems. If an unfriendly power, an individual hacker, or even as in Spain an unbalanced grid should bring about loss of electricity for 3 days. What then?

Do you have a wind up radio? I don't. I do have many bottles of wine as some lady in government suggests.

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180148#Comment_82180148

Even though I am normally cashless, I happily keep a couple of hundreds in cash in my safe at home, or in my wallet when travelling. This makes sense to me as I can imagine outages in the electronic payment systems.

We always have bottled water and a good supply of tinned and dried food at home. Candles, matches, logs for the wood burner, power banks, and lots of blankets are a given, too. And loopaper, ever since Covid 😂. The only recent addition has been a wind up radio.

But paper statements for my 100+ accounts? Never.

Nor will we keep paper copies of our passports, birth, marriage etc certificates, as he also suggested. Electronic copies, yes, definitely, but not paper ones.

UKX69

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180170#Comment_82180170

As a child of the 1950s, I think that life has got easier BUT, with everything relying on computers etc, if it did hit the fan, we’ll all be up the creek regardless of what the government tells us!

Dustyevsky

friolento: The only recent addition has been a wind up radio.

What is this obsession with wind up radios, or is it itself a wind-up? My tranny goes for many months on 3 AA batteries, and in the case of the old 80s monster in the polytunnel, years on 3 Ds.

Surely, if we need a radio in extremis, the last thing we should need to do is keep winding the blimmin' thing up?

friolento

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82180145#Comment_82180145

I have well over 100 accounts, and regularly open new savings, investment and credit card accounts. I have not been asked for a paper bank statement produced by a financial institution in ages. On the very few occasions when someone wanted to see a piece of paper, I printed one from a PDF statement. These are exactly the same as ones sent by banks by Post, nobody can tell the difference. Keeping paper statements is just not a viable option for me.

The only concession I would make is to file one or two PDF statements on e.g. a memory stick, or on my laptop. If we find ourselves without power or backup power from powerbanks, the likelihood that anyone would ask for a paper copy of a statement is next to nil, so I am not worried about that.

flaneurs_lobster

At last! A reason to keep all the bits of paper that Principality BS keep sending me despite all my requests not to.