Top 3 Justifications for Paper Bill Delivery

Over 60% of credit cardholders now receive e-statements exclusively. That number is up from approximately 25% ten years ago, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and has risen even higher over the past three years.

Consumers who’ve transitioned from paper to electronic delivery benefit from convenience and from receiving timely and safe information access, not to mention a reduced carbon footprint. They might save money, too, as postal rates and printing costs consistently increase and billers seek to pass the expense along to paper document recipients as extra fees. The price of domestic postage has increased by some 40% during the past eight years, per USPS data.

If you can track spending, check for fraud/identity errors, and make payments on time using e-statements, then you're probably better off without all that paper, advises personal finance firm NerdWallet. Admittedly, some people just work better with paper and lean on hard copies to keep their lives in order. Digital natives won't blink an eye when prompted to set up and retrieve e-statements. For someone less familiar or not comfortable working online, however, NerdWallet points out they may be concerned the lack of paper statements could result in missed payments, late fees, and lower credit scores.

Common Paper Delivery Justifications

Paper proponents cite several reasons for not converting to paperless document delivery. If you’ve avoided digital documents so far, your decision may be related to rationales like these:

1. Ongoing concerns about privacy and online security. The plethora of email scams and phishing schemes hasn’t made the go-paperless decision any easier for the digital-weary. Some imposter emails sneaking through spam filters appear to be the real thing, with company logos in place on an “invoice,” for example.
2. A lack of permanence for legal record-keeping. People with “tech trust issues” often feel the need to have something tangible for filing purposes. While credit-card issuers do archive older statements, they only hold on to statements for a limited length of time. Closing an account may also limit access to old statements, so consumers must print or save PDF files before the account closes.
3. Statements received in the mail serve as physical reminders to make payments. With the deluge of email now received daily, it’s not uncommon for important messages to get lost in the inbox clutter. Bills sent through the U.S. mail are more difficult to ignore for the out-of-sight, out-of-mind crowd.

E-statements: Safer and More Convenient

While combatting online, cyber-crime is a daunting challenge, paperless e-statements offer digital encryption to protect sensitive, personal information, points out marketing agency Amisive. The idea that “paper is safer” is a myth. Brazen thieves steal identities by snatching printed bills from residential mailboxes: Mail theft increased by 48% year-over-year in 2023. If consumers do not shred their documents, “analog” criminals could steal them right from trash disposal bins, too.

Paper is far from being convenient. E-statements are easier to search when looking for a particular transaction. Say it’s tax time and Uncle Sam needs to know how much you spent on child care last year. You can arguably review e-statements faster than paging through paper documents. Electronic filing is a space-saver as well. A statement for a single billing cycle can be several pages long. Shuffling reams of paper in a filing cabinet requires much more space than parking e-statements on a hard drive or storing them in the cloud.

Consumers can set recurring reminders to download (and pay) e-bills. One organizational tip is to sort legitimate, transactional messages from promotional ones. “Check each company’s policy about marketing messages and opt out or unsubscribe from as many as you can,” recommends groovyPost author Dave Greenbaum. Caution: Tagging as “spam” in your email program might treat all messages from that provider as spam, meaning you’ll miss your statement. “Typically, the email message with your statement will have the same subject line,” which can be marked to never go into the junk-mail folder.

A Better Paperless Option

If some drawbacks of converting to digital communications are eliminated, consumers will make the switch and decide to turn off paper delivery. Why go through the hassle connected with managing all your digital relationships manually when you can take advantage of a service like Cubby Paperless? Cubby serves as a friendly, monthly reminder for every bill that needs to be paid, and it’s all housed in one “digital filing cabinet” — at your fingertips.

If you are sticking with paper because dealing with dozens of biller websites is too complex, Cubby Paperless may be the solution for you.