Paperless Bank and Financial Records?

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

I am looking to go paperless for my Banking and other Financial Records to avoid getting so much mail to deal with in the future. Has any done this and if so what do you think? What have you done to protect your records? What learnings do you have that you could share?

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

We might as well be.

For bills I still like to get a paper copy. I stack the bills and pay them in order, and there have been times when one did not get paid because the paper copy was not there (mail forwarding issues reported earlier). I pay all bills online except for those that don't offer it. I have gone with auto-pay on a few, but still like to see bills and pay them. There are some providers I don't trust.

Email provider glitch, Internet provider glitch, computer glitch, and hacking concern me. Doing things electronically is not 100% reliable and far from 100% safe.

Having said that, the bulk of our finances are via the Internet, and I checked them every now and then. That happened when I was laddering CDs.

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

there are pros and cons and I would love not to have the piles of paperwork.
but when i had to step in for my mother in law, two aunts, parents and take over financial matters, the only thing I had to go by was paperwork I could find. The only way I knew my aunt had a cd was an old letter from the bank. I think if something happened to me, my son might be able to find enough paperwork to find out exactly what I have and who to call for more details. I have given him a list of up to date information, but things change so frequently, that it won't be sufficient.
Another problem is that many times I go into an account on line, they don't recognize my computer. I have to go through a lot of steps to prove who I am. not a bad thing but not easy for someone to step in to help.
I have most of my bills on auto pay, are many are paperless. but I am still swimming in paper.
I have my statements sent to me monthly by my broker, but all the financial information and proxy statements are online.
I had an incident with aunt's bank. I know she closed her safety deposit box. Then I got a bill (my aunt had severe dementia). I knew I hadn't received a bill the year before, but I didn't have paper statements. I could not look back far enough on line. Bank insisted it was still open. I ended up having to go through a lot of workand expense, and have the box drilled open, so that I could close it without worrying something was in there. the box was empty.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Back to your previous "forwarding mail" issue, I am reminded today that if you wish to forward it for more than 6 months, you can't. So, your forward it for 6 months, and then when the end to that period is close, forward it again for the balance.

That can all be done by setting up an account at USPS.com, and costs $1 per order on a credit or debit card, just to confirm who's doing it.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

"Please make sure to notify other important parties of your change of address. Mail forwarding only covers certain classes of mail of a period of up to 12 months (not really). Government agencies and mailers are not automatically notified of your new address, so it is important that you inform parties directly."

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

I have one bank that will not forward, and if I forget to change the address, I don't get the statements. Because i am not paperless, I can only look at current and prior statement on line.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I have one bank that will not forward, and if I forget to change the address, I don't get the statements. Because i am not paperless, I can only look at current and prior statement on line.

That is exactly why I mentioned that previously, because one of ours does not forward also. Because of that, one of our accounts kept going dormant. I fixed that by auto-depositing $1 a month from another account, and only because they did not have a $1 a year option. So, if I want, I can deposit $12 a year back.

Not everything is set up to take into account real life. The fact that people might have two addresses is one of those. State income tax returns included . . . our state where we report income does not consider that you might spend part of the year there and part of the year somewhere else . . . they only consider that you might move into or away from that state during the year.

[JWC Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close JWC]

I do everything paperless. I also use automatic payments and deposits which greatly simplify things. I can always print out a paper statement if I want one.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

I do everything paperless....

That doesn't smell good.