Many people prefer to manage their finances on paper. Old-school paper statements still have their value, consumer advocates say. “But for bank statements, there isn’t necessarily a need as much as there was before." “Of course, some people still have the fireproof safe for their estate documents," she said. Most clients at her firm, which primarily serves investors 30 to 50 years old, prefer to monitor their accounts in real time using transaction summaries rather than wait for monthly statements, she said. Now that nearly all banking tasks that used to be handled in branches can be done from a smartphone, a complete transition to paperless billing is probably inevitable, said Chelsea Ransom-Cooper, director of financial planning at Zenith Partners. Roughly two-thirds of credit-card customers have enrolled in paperless billing as of last year, up from 36% in 2015, according to the CFPB. For many customers, the frequent prodding worked. Those regulations fall under the purview of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, say attorneys and consumer advocates.īanks and credit-card companies have more often asked their customers to go paperless with requests over email or when they log in. “It does not sound legal to me," said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. The rules don’t specify whether customers are entitled to digital access to their accounts. “We’re requiring you to go Paperless to maintain digital access to your account," the site said.Īttorneys and consumer advocates say the policy tests the limits of federal laws that require credit-card companies to mail customers paper statements at least once a month, unless they opt out in favor of digital delivery. If he wanted to keep receiving monthly paper statements, he would have to start making check payments by mail, too. When he logged in to pay his credit-card bill last month, Citi gave him the ultimatum. Though the policy requires customers to enroll in paperless billing to continue using their account online, they can switch back to paper later and retain access to the bank’s site and app, the representative said.īarry Schneider had ignored prodding from banks to give up paper statements over the years, as he prefers to track his finances the old-fashioned way. The bank didn’t say how many customers received these messages. The effort is part of a beta program rolled out to a small number of customers who access accounts online but still get paper statements, a Citigroup representative said. Aside from the environmental benefits of not printing millions of pages, banks have said switching to digital statements is also a cost-saving measure.Ĭiti’s policy is one of the harshest yet for the holdouts. Banks and credit-card companies have been nudging customers to give up paper statements for years.
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