do you print off bills that are paid electronically?

[lindy]

Most of my monthly bills, telephone/internet/condo fees etc come electronically and are paid automatically on my credit card   My bank statements are all electronic now.  At this point the only "hard copy" bill I get is one for my credit card. I pay that bill on-line from my bank account and I don't wish to change that over to a e-bill until the bank forces the issue. 

My question for those that do get e-statements and bills now : do you still print off a copy for your files? At the moment I print them off  twice a year and put them all into one big envelope for that year "2017". When I get printed copies of the December statements and bills I close the envelope with a paper clip and put it away.  I find that printing off the statements and bills twice a year has reduced the amount of paper sitting around here significantly in file folders. 

Of course I do make copies of everything to do with my income tax return and store those in hard copy and saved on a USB stick, but it's the monthly bills and statements that I wonder about. 

[Use Less]

Mostly not. I pay my credit card the same way you do. I like to have the paper copy of that: easier to scan for any obvious oddities. Yes to things that are specifically tax-related.

[lindy]

thank you, Yes, I like to see the cc bill in hard copy because I use it for almost all of my purchases. Even though I believe that I budget well, every now and then when I see the charges I'll think "did you really spend that much on xyz this month".

[solargeek]

Yes. IN the event of a failure of the server system in the bank and in its backup, your copy is your proof.

With all the hacking going on, (my DH was a victim of his W-2 info stolen in the nationwide Ceridien breach 1.5 years ago and they forever have his SS#, name,B, address etc), you want some backup. We keep copies of anything important and follow the 'throw it away' rules of the IRS and most businesses.

[here to stay]

I don't print out anything any more. But I do have proof of payment sent in a text message to me and it stays on that for a few months.

[Woodpecker]

I still like getting paper bills for my credit cards. I save all my tax info for at least 5 years. I only pay one credit card on line & no other monthly bills. I like to see the bill, compare how much gas I used this year verses last year, etc. I don't keep general bills that I've paid long. I do keep the most current paid bills, until next months bill arrives. The piles build up too quickly.

[Skandi]

No we don't print anything, waste of paper as far as I can see, All the official bills as it were go to the government email, no point in printing them (tax, car tax, waste collection electric) I can't see much point from turning something from an email I never read again to a piece of paper I never reed again. I don't have a CC. We do get some paper bills, i.e vets, car mechanic etc etc those sit in a draw untill it fills up and then they get thrown away.

[MeandTK]

Yes," if it ain't in print, it didn't happen," is my philososphy.

[lindy]

Sept 5, 2017 3:46:25 GMT solargeek said:

Yes. IN the event of a failure of the server system in the bank and in its backup, your copy is your proof.

With all the hacking going on, (my DH was a victim of his W-2 info stolen in the nationwide Ceridien breach 1.5 years ago and they forever have his SS#, name,B, address etc), you want some backup. We keep copies of anything important and follow the 'throw it away' rules of the IRS and most businesses.

|In some ways this is my strongest reason for printing off copies of the bills twice a year;when my bank's security gets breached, and we all know that it is a matter of "when" rather than "if", I will still have proof of payment and account numbers.  I do keep all my tax returns for seven years as required and used to keep all monthly bills that long too.  Now I keep things like the telephone for 2 years PLUS any bill that reflects any changes in my account that comes from a change in service.  The amount of paper has decreased but I'm always looking for a way to decrease it again, without causing myself financial harm down the road.

Thanks for the responses everyone; you've all given my some points to ponder while I shred old bills.  

[Melissa]

I get a mailed copy of all my bills. I then mostly pay online and write the confirmation number on the bill. Of course I am a paperwork lover. I save everything! I have a large filing cabinet and everything is filed. You would be surprised at how often it comes in handy...

[KyMama]

I don't print a paper copy of our bills, I download and save it to my laptop. And since all but one of our bills is paid online I also save the payment confirmation page to my laptop. I have a documents folder for each year that contains folders for each month of the year that everything gets saved to. So for example when I get the email about my water bill I log on to their website, download my bill and save it to the correct month/year folder and then do the same when I pay the bill. I have an external hard drive that I back everything up to also, just in case something happens to my laptop. I figure I can always print either one if I need it down the road, but for now my house isn't filling up with piles of paper everywhere.

The only paper I have is an index card. The system I use is one card per bill that is filed in a recipe box with date dividers. Each card has the account information on the front with contact information for that company just in case I need to contact them quickly. On the back of the card I write the due date, amount due and balance if it's a cc or loan account. When I pay it I write the date and amount I paid along with the confirmation number. This way I have quick access if there's a question, but I still have the statement and confirmation page saved on my laptop if I need to dispute something.

The good thing about the ebills is that you receive it before you would a paper statement. This really came in handy this month when my water bill was sky high. I was able to get the water company out here and get a plumber to replace my line before I would have even received the bill in the mail.

[Daniel]

A little trick for those that like to keep a copy of bills paid ect. When you have the screen on your computer, hit the print icon. Then change the printer to save as pdf. Just create a folder somewhere for you receipts/statements ect and save it there. You can then delete them as they get older, they take up a tiny fraction of space on the pc.