Fraught with Friction – The Typical Digital Document Experience

We all have pay bills to pay. No one looks forward to it and it’s not a pleasant task at the best of times. But when the process is filled with friction and frustrations, the experience becomes even worse.

Going paperless and paying bills online can certainly help make the process easier. At least you don’t have to sort through paper piles, find stamps, make the trek to the mailbox, and safely dispose of the paid bill, or file it. Digital bill management has definite advantages but the process can still throw up obstacles and test your patience.

A Typical Bill Review Scenario

The average American household receives about nine bills per month, besides non-bill transactions like insurance claim forms and paycheck stubs. Many of us receive 12-20 digital documents a month. Unless you’re lucky enough to deal with a central online management bill-payment system (many of which have recently closed), you have lots of biller websites to navigate, each with its own idiosyncrasies and navigational irritations.

Imagine this scenario. You’re paying bills but need to access one of the biller sites for a deeper dive into your monthly charges. You pull up the log-in screen and you draw a blank. What is your username for this site? And what about the password? Where did you write it down? Or did you? You can ask to reset the password, but security protocols may include several steps to verify your identity-a frustrating experience when you planned to review a bill and pay it quickly.

That’s just one annoyance. Other nuisances can also create a less-than-fun user experience.

Lost in the Inbox

Unless your utility provider is diligent about sending bills and payment reminders, you may forget when the phone bill is due and incur late charges. A disruption in email delivery or simply missing the notification when it comes to your inbox are not uncommon conditions.

It may seem hard to believe that e-billing software makes mistakes, but it happens. If databases aren’t maintained and updated promptly, no bill reminder goes out (or is delivered to an old email address) and you’re left on your own. Payment confirmations are just as spotty.

Navigation Times Nine

When you sign into a biller website, navigation is inconsistent. Each provider has its own site structure. Some sites it takes one click, on other sites it takes three to get where you need to be. If you’re searching for back bills, the bill history function can vary on each site, and billers may limit your viewing options, allowing you to see only bills from the past year. You may also have to wait for a download to be delivered to the email address on file with the biller. Repeating this task for multiple billers can eat up a huge chunk of time and aggravate your nerves.

Unless you’re diligent and move bills to a designated folder as they drop into your inbox, you’ll have to find them manually. You might accidentally overlook a bill or two.

If you like to manage bills on your mobile device, biller websites are not always optimized to work on a small screen. Even apps, if you enjoy having one for each provider you deal with, are not always user friendly.

A Better Solution

Even with all these quirks, there’s no denying the advantages of digital bill review and payment. It’s tidier, more efficient, and quicker than a paper-based system. But it’s not a perfect process.

A better system is one that gathers all your bills in one easy-to-access site. You can log in with just one password, look at all your outstanding bills, and easily search your history. Cubby Paperless, a free online digital filing system, solves a vexing problem.

To see all your documents in a central place instead of logging into each biller’s site individually, ask your billers to send copies of your bills to Cubby Paperless. Enjoy the convenience of bill consolidation that makes your life easier.