In Favor Of Paper Statements

I consider myself to be an above-average user of e-commerce, online stock trading and Internet Banking. However, when it comes to statements, I’ve a very strong preference for paper – to the extent that I recently threatened to cancel a credit card issued by a bank if they continued to delay mailing paper statements under the pretext that they were sending me e-statements on time.

Resistance to change is admittedly one reason why I might prefer paper statements. However, I’d like to deflect some of the blame to the current state of e-statement technology and the regulatory environment.

1. With identity theft on the rise, banks and others keep advising us to check our statements carefully and spot any false transactions. Doing this is very easy with a highlighter and a paper statement. How do I do this with an e-statement that typically comes in the form of a non-editable PDF file?
2. It’s a pain to remember some account credentials – ex: last four digits of the account #, date of birth in a specified format, etc. – that are required to open e-statements. In terms of convenience, opening an envelope and reading a paper statement trumps e-statements any day.
3. During its recent process of reviewing my company’s application for a business account, PayPal asked us to submit paper statements to establish proof of my company’s address. It specifically said, “online statements cannot be accepted”.  If a pure play web-based company like PayPal insists on paper statements – no doubt owing to regulatory reasons – you can imagine the situation with brick-and-mortar companies. Besides, almost everyone asks for proof documents not older than 3-6 months. Therefore, a “green” workaround like paper statement for one month followed by e-statements for the reminder of the year, simply won’t work.

   

Against this backdrop, I’m not surprised to learn from a recent FORRESTER report titled “Paperless Plight: Growing Resistance Outpaces Adoption Among US Bank Account Holders” that the percentage of US bank account holders who have given up paper statements averages just 24%. Furthermore, as high as “37% of account holders who receive a paper statement today say they will never abandon paper in favor of online statements” (italics mine).

Unless there’s a drastic change in e-statement technology and in the regulatory environment, banks can count me among the 37%.