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PSA: paperless banking is asking to get ripped off

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Red Storm said:
Moral of the story: Paper or not, a bad bank will be a bad bank.
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This. Already shutdown my account this morning and got my $10 refunded after wasting 20 minutes arguing with the manager there. Grabbed an application to the DoC credit union from work.

Feel free to knock me for not noticing it. This was just a PSA for folks that expect major account changes to come via a separate letter (like they always have for me in the past). Soon they'll start putting the new terms underneath the postage stamp on the envelope and claim they gave notice lol 🙂
 
Paperless proves to be problematic for many things. I'd never recommend any employee to go paperless for their paystubs. Once you lose your job or move on, you lose access to them.

A lot of mortgage companies still want original bank statements and stubs as well.
 
I've sent a couple nasty notes to the city. They started charging a fee to electronically pay the water/garbage bill unless you go with paperless billing. Previously they only charged if you payed by a credit card, now with any form. Schmuck said it was due to contract language when they changed billing service provider and to provide convenience for the public. Sounds like the retards didn't negotiate an effective contract and the only convenience is us getting screwed by it and them shrugging their shoulders.
 
dabuddha said:
2 banks

BB&T: We're still doing paper statements. They changed the terms requiring 5 times the direct deposit to our checking account to keep it free. They claim they sent notice back in June. I never received a letter. They said it was in the statement. I pulled out my copy of the statement from my filing cabinet and it's a 2 sentence blurb stating so on page 6 of the statement (back of the 3rd sheet). Even after telling the bitch on the phone I can change my direct deposit they said they can't and won't refund the $10. Fuck em, will be closing that account tomorrow

M&T bank: Same deal except we were doing the paperless thing. Ended up almost losing $30 on that bullshit. Closed all of our accounts the very next day.

Morale of the story: fuck banks. They will try to rip you off anyway possible. At least doing paper statements causes them to lose a little bit of money and increases the chance you'll catch their "changes" /rant /crawling in my skin
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I keep all my documents. At the end of the year, I damn well better have January - December of all my statements for all my banks, all my credit cards, and all my bills. Getting a paper statement is what guarantees me that, because it sits on my desk until it is either a) downloaded or b) scanned. After that it is shredded.

This whole "Green" Paperless bullshit pisses me off. Look, it's one thing if you can magically download it to my hard drive, organize/rename it, and file it away - but they don't do that shit. They don't do ANYTHING. You are lucky if they even send you a notification email - and even then you have to login to retrieve it (also under the assumption they have a usable PDF format you can extract).

You shouldn't be paying any of those fees. Sending you a letter with a sentence is not some magical signature that you agree to their changed terms/conditions/fees. I would go insane until I got my money back, $10 or $0.10 cents.
 
This one thing that I am still a luddite about: I want my paper statements and I will save them for a couple years.

I do not want them electronically because, since I want them on paper, I would end up having to pay for ink, paper and wear-and-tear on my printer.

In the end, when it come to your money, the only real proof you have of anything are your physical documents.

MotionMan
 
lupi said:
I've sent a couple nasty notes to the city. They started charging a fee to electronically pay the water/garbage bill unless you go with paperless billing. Previously they only charged if you payed by a credit card, now with any form. Schmuck said it was due to contract language when they changed billing service provider and to provide convenience for the public. Sounds like the retards didn't negotiate an effective contract and the only convenience is us getting screwed by it and them shrugging their shoulders.
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You can't even get automatic payments for some things around here unless you agree to paperless billing. They simply won't sign you up for it if you still want paper bills.
 
This happens all the time in the office for the purpose of deniability. It's called small clausing. The art of burying extremely important pieces of information deep into meaningless legal jargon. And people wonder why the words and rules for governing the sale of cabbage are so long and many.
 
dabuddha said:
2 banks

BB&T: We're still doing paper statements. They changed the terms requiring 5 times the direct deposit to our checking account to keep it free. They claim they sent notice back in June. I never received a letter. They said it was in the statement. I pulled out my copy of the statement from my filing cabinet and it's a 2 sentence blurb stating so on page 6 of the statement (back of the 3rd sheet). Even after telling the bitch on the phone I can change my direct deposit they said they can't and won't refund the $10. Fuck em, will be closing that account tomorrow

M&T bank: Same deal except we were doing the paperless thing. Ended up almost losing $30 on that bullshit. Closed all of our accounts the very next day.

Morale of the story: fuck banks. They will try to rip you off anyway possible. At least doing paper statements causes them to lose a little bit of money and increases the chance you'll catch their "changes" /rant /crawling in my skin
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So, you got screwed over by not reading the "paperless" banking that you keep in your file cabinet? Fail. -2/10 for this rant.
 
I have never paid a penny for anything banking related, big bank or not. But then again, I read everything, including my paperless statements. Paperless does not mean "don't worry about it." It just means you get a PDF. The OP is negligent.
 
slugg said:
I have never paid a penny for anything banking related, big bank or not. But then again, I read everything, including my paperless statements. Paperless does not mean "don't worry about it." It just means you get a PDF. The OP is negligent.
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I think folks are missing my point. In the past I've always received a separate letter/email regarding account term changes. Citi send me emails saying I have a message in my message center etc. Now they're burying critical account changes in monthly statements
 
dabuddha said:
I think folks are missing my point. In the past I've always received a separate letter/email regarding account term changes. Citi send me emails saying I have a message in my message center etc. Now they're burying critical account changes in monthly statements
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Ehh... borderline. I can sympathize with you, but you still did not read your own bank statements. I'd say it's unethical of the bank to do that, but it was stated in the agreement that you signed that they can and will do that.

If you feel you will get better service and resources from a credit union, then great. Credit unions are very good for a lot of people.
 
Chase has a pretty hefty minimum too and they allowed us to combine 2 accounts to meet that minimum. It used to be nearly nothing. Times are tough even for them, maybe.
 
Aaviel said:
So you're saying that it made no difference if you were paperless or not....
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Given that most people don't even bother logging onto their banking website every month to examine their online statements vs examining a printed copy thats mailed to them (though both are probably pretty close), I'm saying that you're more likely to miss a change in terms if it's buried in an online statement then one mailed to you. But more important is the fact that banks are no longer sending you a separate letter/notice whenever they make drastic changes to your account terms.
 
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