Receiving financial paperwork and bills online

[firecat]

Do you choose online delivery for bills and financial paperwork?

If so, what arrangements do you have set up for having those bills paid and that paperwork reviewed if you have a long illness and can't do it yourself? Or if you die?

This message brought to you by Wells Fargo, which informed me when I logged on today that it had changed my statement delivery option to "online only." I was able to change it back, but it pissed me off that they did it in an "opt out" manner like that.

I don't LIKE paperwork and would prefer to use online delivery for such things, but even though I would trust my partners to take good care of me if I got sick, that doesn't mean I want to give them full access to my email.

Comments

[silveradept]

In our situation, both partners have the passwords to the various financial obligations. Which could spell absolute disaster if acrimonious events happen, but should provide in case of illness.

[firecat]

That sounds good. So do the bills come to a separate email address? Or do the partners have the passwords to each other's email accounts?

[silveradept]

Bills go to one address or the other. Most are set for some form of automatic payment. The ones that do not, we both have the passwords for. So, potential disasters, sure, but for the most part, there should be no serious issues until the money runs out.

[ironed_orchid]

One option would be to set up a filter so that mail from those senders gets forwarded to other members of the household.

[firecat]

Companies sometimes change their sending addresses without warning.

[centuryplant]

For stuff like utility bills, you could just create a separate e-mail account that everyone in the house has access to and use that.

Safe deposit boxes are another possibility, if you put them in your will and/or health care directive, though it might take a while for your partners to get access.

There are also companies whose business model is to give out passwords to people you specify if something happens to you, but I'm really leery of that -- you're entrusting them with a lot.

[firecat]

Those are good ideas. Does your household do those things?

[centuryplant]

Not so you'd notice.

[megpie71]

I'm paper all the way. Even if it does mean my bank statements go astray because the local postie isn't all they're cracked up to be.

I prefer paper because firstly, the main way that various agencies here in Australia let people know there's something to collect online is via SMS. Which is great, except that SMS messages tend to come along at times when I'm not actually knee deep in my web browser (and therefore not likely to just be able to jump straight into looking at their document) and secondly, getting the SMS reminder at a time like that means I either have to interrupt what I'm doing in order to go online and find the document/bill/letter OR I have to write myself another reminder in order to remember to deal with the wretched thing later. Or in other words, SMS reminders about online bills/letters are just too much blinkin' hassle.

Secondly, I prefer having the actual printed, paper document in my hot little hand when I go down to our social security people (or whoever) to clear up whatever the heck they've got wrong this time. Which means, if I'm getting documents sent to me online, that I have to print the document out. Printer ink costs money (it's about $50 to buy a printer cartridge for the variety of printer I use) and I'm on a very low income. I prefer it if the government departments and big companies I'm dealing with spend *their* cash on the printer ink (which they can buy in bulk for their large printing and folding apparatus at an item cost which means it costs them a lot less per page to print than it does me) rather than insisting I do it for them.

Thirdly, I have a constitutional dislike of PDFs. A PDF isn't a document, it's a pretty picture of a document, and what's worse, it's a pretty picture which is only viewable through proprietary viewing software. Guess what format the majority of companies use for their online documents? I still hold to the position that if the company is going to send me a picture of a bill, I should be able to pay with pictures of currency.

So yeah, silly reasons, but they work for me.

[selki]

Several of these seem like really good reasons to me.

The only bill I seem to be paying online automatically is my LJ subscription, and my EZPass because that's the way they roll. I pay for individual eBay, Etsy, and Amazon purchases online.

That's it. All else paper. I know online would be more convenient sometimes, but I kind of like the paper bill and check balancing ritual.

[ironed_orchid]

I get an emailed message saying I have a new bill, but I have to go to the utility's website to see it in full and pay. When I lived with a partner, we both had the passwords (and picked passwords which weren't the same as our personal ones).

[lilacsigil]

I have everything set to auto-pay. Weirdly enough, that seems to have resulted in better treatment when needing to argue over a charge.

[zeborah]

All my utilities are by direct debit, ie the company tells my bank how much it wants this month and my bank says "Okey-dokey, here it are!" So the purpose of the bill is only to give me a heads up of how much will be taken away from me on [date] and a chance to complain if it's messed up, which it never is.

Personally I prefer email for this because it's less paper to deal with. Minor extra bonuses:
* if I suddenly need a recent bill for proof of address I don't have to hunt through the recycling bin, I can just search in my email;
* it comes slightly quicker than a paper bill would.

But also there's no-one else in my household who ought to have access to these things in the event that I was ill enough not to be able to check my email for weeks at a time.

And in any case companies definitely should always let you opt in to such things.

[firecat]

I have direct debit too for many bills but if I can, I get the statement on paper. I save them in a "pre-recycle-bin" folder that I replace every six months.

[datagoddess]

We have everything go to one email address that then forwards to both of our email addresses. We do it through our own domain (the email address we use is only a forwarder, there is no actual box) and we use a single sign-on to each bill site.

[firecat]

That sounds like a good solution, thanks! (Ugh. I'm not looking forward to changing the email address on every single bill.)

[meloukhia]

This is not really advicey, but I did find it interesting: when I was configuring my Verizon account, it offered me an option for a secondary bill-paying account--totally different U/N, pass, and PIN, and I could control the level of access (for example, I could allow someone to access the account *just* to pay my bill but not to make any account-level changes like canceling, adding lines, etc). I saw this and was like 'this is brilliant, why doesn't every company do this?'

[firecat]

That is indeed brilliant, and every company SHOULD do it.

[marahmarie]

Do you choose online delivery for bills and financial paperwork?

Online and offline. Yeah, I know: trees, but after getting three cable modems hit by lightning this year, all in about three weeks flat (which collectively cost $30 to replace - luckily I had my own modem to put up each time the cable company's got fried) I'm never relying on anything that's solely online-accessible again. I also don't trust the USPS, so online statements as a backup and/or as the main event - in a pinch - are also good essential. Your best overall protection in any scenario, no matter how simple or complex, is redundancy - so all systems are now, uh, redunding over here.

As for long illness and/or death, Other Half is fairly good at knowing what needs to be paid, and if I fall "merely" ill (as opposed to falling dead) then as long as I can talk I can make sure Things Get Paid or at least, uh, die trying.

Money's fairly fluid around here, which is to say we never know how much we'll have from one week to the next, and Sudden Disasters that make three fried modems in a row look very non-eventful and dirt cheap have been coming out the cracks in the walls lately, so there's no direct debit, because there's no telling what (if anything) will be in the bank by the time anything needs to come out of it.

I don't like writing checks, though. I did it for nearly twenty years and hated 1) the time wasted on it, 2) the insecurity of not knowing when the checks would clear, 2a) banking holidays throwing off check-clearing by up to several days each time and 3) the few times I overdrew by small amounts (incurring huge charges from every direction that I'd have to get down on metaphorical bended knee with a banker to fully or at least partially clear up) because shit, one time I forgot to write something down in a register or a stupid fucking deposit did not clear on time - unbeknownst, of course - to me. I also felt like checks were a huge waste of paper and ink - not just mine, but especially the check-printer's.

The best thing I ever did was sign up for a debit card back in 2005 or so and *refuse* to have checking with it anymore. No more checks! No more deposit slips! No more paper registers! And no more bs. Just kept track of everything in my head (one of the few good tricks I ever learned from my Ex, who's pretty good at it). I still have that same account and it's still in perfect standing. It's also free, though I did have to convert it to fully paperless this year to keep it that way.

For home finances with the Other Half on a second account with him I've demurred to having paper checks because it seems Expected and we share it, but honestly, I look for ways to not write them. To the point I'll actually go slightly out of my way (or wait slightly longer) for cash or money orders or find a way to pay for something online. Because I honestly hate writing, recording, and waiting for checks to clear/get where they're going That Damn Much.

[firecat]

three cable modems hit by lightning this year, all in about three weeks flat

!!!

[marahmarie]

Yeah, I know. Which is sort of typical...either my life is so boring I need toothpicks to prop my eyelids open just to get through it, or else there's so many strikingly similar clusterfuck runs all at once it's like Movie Of The Week stuff. I'm so used to it I don't even write - or talk - much about it anymore.

[zeldajean.livejournal.com]

This is a good point that I hadn't though of before. I am awful at handling things when they come in paper form. I was much much better at it when I had an office in my house but I don't currently. So, everything comes online. Perhaps I will create a separate email address for my online billing items.

[sabotabby]

I get mostly paper except from my ISP (e-mail) and phone (text). Easier to remember to pay because I can put it on my desk.

[mdlbear]

This.

Anything that isn't paid automatically *has* to be paper, otherwise it'll get lost in the endless stream of spam.

[firecat]

Yeah, in my experience, companies will change the address they're sending stuff from without warning, so whitelists don't work too well to solve that.

[pameladean]

I don't, and I would really resent just being catapulted into doing so. I pay bills online, but the terms of service for the various websites consistently refuse to take responsibility for themselves. I am responsible for paying my bill on time to the nanosecond even if the website is down or wonky. They won't notify me, they won't provide a grace period. I'm supposed to keep track of their stupidities and failures and then pay extra to use the telephone, which I hate passionately, and pay by phone. No thanks. When they are reliable, maybe. I'd love to use less paper. But their attitude really really irks me.

P.

[firecat]

Yes, exactly.

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

I don't trust online bill paying services; I prefer to receive the bills by email then pay by paper check.

With online bill pay, the worst case is very bad: the money doesn't get received and/or credited, but has been deducted from my account so I can't pay it some other way. Very worst, it might get credited to some whole wrong company, so I'd have three companys' phone trees to deal with to get it back.

Even if the transaction works okay, later getting a proof of payment can be a problem after several months, and may require visiting the bank and getting someone behind a desk to search their records, if they can do it at all. (Even when I've paid by a paper check! -- Now I pay the extra $2 to get images of all checks sent out in the paper monthly bank statements.)

The exception is, in a hurry I may use a credit card.

As to if I'm out of action, my partner would have a much easier time finding bill statements with account numbers etc in my email than on paper around my desk. Just clicking on Thunderbird logs into the email account.

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

I pay bills online through my credit union, but I set up each bill individually as a one time payment. I still get paper bills for everything I can, so someone else could pay them, if necessary by writing a check. I much prefer this. What I can't understand is that the credit union (Wings) charges a fee if you make *fewer* than 4 payments a month with them.

Could you set up a separate email account for delivery of e-bills and nothing else, then give a few trusted people the account name and password? Or even put the info in an envelope to be opened in case of certain stated emergencies?

And don't put this, or your will, or anything like that in a bank safe deposit box. That will only be opened after your will is processed. (you *do* have a will, don't you?) If you feel you need one, the year's rent will buy a decent fireproof lock box at most office supply stores.

[firecat]

I guess I'll have to set up a separate account for billing, but I really resent it, because that means I have to remember to look at another account.

Good advice about the will and the lock box. I have them but I only set them up earlier this year.

[zeldajean.livejournal.com]

Depending on the separate account you might be able to have it forward all incoming mail to your regular email address. Then you'll get everything in your usual space but have a separate space that your loved ones can access if needed.

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

I'm less worried about fire than burglary. I figure a fireproof lock box would be the first thing a burglar would steal.

Most things, I put originals in the bank, after scanning them and putting multiple copies in multiple places. It's possible to arrange with the bank for one's partner to have access to the box, in various ways.

[eveningstartwo.livejournal.com]

I pay just about everything I can online. The exceptions are usually one time bills that are too bothersome to set up and reoccurring bills that the payee has proved to be a twat. I either do them as a one time deal or send a paper check. Should I die, my partner can get into Quicken and I have them all set up. Would he actually do it? Unknown but Not My Problem. If we both go at the same time my son will have a mess but if AT&T doesn't get paid, do I care?

[firecat]

Do you also receive your bills via email? That's the part I'm trying to figure out.

If I die obviously I don't care, but if I am alive but too sick to pay the bills myself, I might kind of want my health insurance bill to continue to be paid...

[eveningstartwo.livejournal.com]

Yes and no. Some notify me via email but there is a "bill. Due" function in Quicken so I or someone else know to go look for them. And I'm OCD enough to want to check things including autopay.

[kitrona.livejournal.com]

You're the second person to have trouble with Wells Fargo on my FL today. And I also dislike when companies do sneaky things like that.

I have paper bills for the water and internet, but I think I'm going to pay them online.

[flarenut.livejournal.com]

I pay as few things online as possible. Paper or recurring charges for me. I think my panix account might be the only really meaningful one.

There have been so many terrible stupid online banking breaches that I feel I would be an idiot to expose anything but a tiny limited account in that way.

Since I live with a spouse and leave my computer on, I'm not too worried. Maybe I should be.