Switching from paper bills to electronic billing might save time, but is it worth it?
Paperless billing allows you to access your monthly credit card statement online rather than receiving a mailed copy. Each month, your credit card issuer will send an email when your statement is ready. For your convenience, some credit card issuers also include your minimum payment due and the due date in the body of the email. If you're thinking about ditching traditional paper statements, consider the pros and cons before you make the change.
Pro: Saving the Trees
Paperless statements are helpful for the environment by reducing the amount of paper we use. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average American uses about one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree's equivalent in paper each year. Fewer billing statements means less demand for paper and less air pollution from paper production. Some credit card issuers incentive paperless billing by making their own contributions to environmental causes when you sign up for paperless billing.
Con: Easier to Miss Payments
Without receiving a mailed statement, you could forget forget to send your payment. The physical statement can serve as a due date reminder, for example, when you can print the statement from the internet and post it where you normally put your bills.
Pro: Less Mail and Paper in Your Home
The elimination of billing statements means less loose paper and clutter in your home. You’ll save time sorting through bills and figuring how what you should keep, what can be thrown in the trash, and what must be shredded.
If you download your billing statements, you can save them to your computer or external drive and access later when you need them. Most credit card issuers make several months of billing statements available online, so it's may not be necessary to save your most recent statements.
Con: More Passwords to Remember
Signing up for online billing, means you’ll have yet another username and password to remember. Even if you try to use the same ones for all your sites – which generally isn’t a good idea – there are always a few sites with slightly different restrictions that will require you to come up with something different from what you normally use, something that you’re more likely to forget. And if you can't remember your password, you’ll have to use the password recovery process to check your statement every time you forget your password.
Pro: Perks for Online Billing Statements
Some credit card issuers offer incentives to cardholders who sign up for paperless statements. For example, you may be entered into sweepstakes when you switch to paperless billing statements. Some card issuers charge a fee to send a paper statement and waive this fee when you sign up to receive your billing statement online.
Con: Less Access to Previous Statements
Credit card issuers typically only make a certain number of statements available online. If you need more than that, e.g., for tax purposes, you may have to go through a few extra steps (and could even have to pay a fee) to access older statements. You could get around this by printing your billing statement each month and filing it away so you can access it if you need to.