Tag: modern-technology

Today I received another exhortation from a financial institution with which I am associated to switch to online statements. They make the following claims regarding their online statements:

I’ve always been hesitant to go to online-only statements. Perhaps it is because I still send paper checks, and I match the statement to the check. I do this because I find it easier: I print out all my checks from Quicken, and take a small amount of time to pay them, filing the paper receipts as a record. Online bill paying, I think, is simply easier for the bank. Unless they have a specialized interface for Quicken, you need to coordinate with each providers website, as well as your bank website… plus they typically charge you a fee for online bill paying. So I’ll stick with paper checks, thank you very much.

But online statements… I can’t see them emailing you the statement itself, for there’s too much of a security risk there, unless they send you encrypted PDF (or you have coordinated signed encrypted email – ha!). So they will just send you a note indicating the statement is ready, so you need to take time to go to their website, print it (to get the portion to mail in). The “free” aspect is thus a red herring–it is perhaps no charge, but it certainly isn’t free. It just transfers the time cost and the paper cost to your end. As for keeping the statements organized–I’ve never found financial institution websites so well laid out that they are easier to use than a good paper filing system, especially for things multiple years old. Are they giving enhanced search capabilities? Can I go to their web site and ask (via a query): I want to see all my charges to a florest made three years ago that were around $40? As for the risk of mail fraud, I’m not sure whether this is FUD. True, mail does go missing (I’ve had some theatre mail appear to be undelivered), but it is more likely the fault of the mail carrier than intentional fraud. But I’ve also had email go missing silently.

So what is the real advantage here? What am I missing? I know there are folks out there that love electronic statements and bill paying? Why?

Today, I travelled out to Baltimore for another week of workshops. Along the way, I saw how cash is no longer the legal tender it once was. The day started with a Flyaway bus to LAX. The Flyaway used to be a nice cheap roundtrip, but it has gone up to $14! Youch! Further, they no longer accept cash or use tickets — your charge slip is your receipt. Although this isn’t a problem for me, I could see it being a problem for those without credit/debit cards (such as young adults). I saw something similar on the airplane: United now only accepts credit cards for on-board food and alcoholic beverage purchases (and their prices have gone up: $6-7 for the boxes, $9 for the meals). Again, not a problem for me, but it could be a problem for some.

But what gets me most of all is the non-acceptance of cash. The ability to do things anonymously in our society is rapidly disappearing. Cash is going away, being replaced by a plastic society (which makes more and more money for the credit card companies, who get a small slice of every transaction).

Do others find this disturbing?