Rant: ebilling

[lupi]

Sent a nasty note to the city last year. They claimed they changed billing service providers so to pay only incurred a surcharge. Later they come out with a program where if you get an email statement instead of paper then you can pay online without the surcharge.

Bastages.

I get them back by getting a paper statement and sending a check in about a week after its due. Usually I get a reminder notice about 2 days after I've mailed it so I know I'm making them go through more work and cost.

 

[dainthomas]

I will switch to electronic billing the day that I actually benefit from it. That hasn't happened yet with the vast majority of companies. With paper billing, I get a hard copy reminder that a bill is due. As long as that bill is by my computer, it hasn't been paid (although I try to pay it immediately). I get a permanent record for tax time, free of charge. I don't have to do any extra work other than go to the mailbox which I do anyways.

With electronic billing, I have to remember every bill's due date, I have to do the work to log in, and I have to pay to print copies at tax time. And yet the company saves printing/shipping costs. I get the pain, they get the benefit. Transfer half of those savings to me (or at least SOME form of actual benefit), and I'll do electronic billing.

About the only time that I have done electronic was with Vanguard, where their fees are waived. That is an actual benefit for me (no fees) and a benefit to the company (no printing / shipping costs).

I get an email that I have a new bill. I have the monthly due dates in my google calendar. When the date approaches, I get a reminder then login and pay the bill. Takes about a minute per bill and there's no paper bill to get lost/thrown away. It's been sooo much easier and efficient since I ditched paper.

 

[inachu]

I hate paper mail, but with paper mail you open it and see whatever it is. The bill information and so on. Ebilling came along, which is great because I don't have to deal with all this paper stuff that I have to later on shred.

BUT...

Why can't they just send me a PDF right in my email. I don't want to have to login to some stupid interface I just want to open an email and have the information in front of me, the same way it works with paper billing, except instead of a piece of paper it's on my screen. Nooooo that would be too easy. Instead each individual company has it's own login system which means for each utility I need to have a separate user name and password, just to view a freaking bill. Yeah yeah security blah blah. It's up to users to protect their email. An email is more secure than a piece of paper physically sitting outside your house all day while you're at work.

This is the same kind of reasoning that hospitals are in the dark ages and still use fax. They think a fax machine sitting next to the bathroom in the waiting room is more secure than an encrypted email.

Because emails are not secure.

I hate it when I get certain bills in my email or on paper.
Will be looking into 3rd party secure email... Its from germany Lava boom or something.

 

[Ketchup]

You know, this "security" excuse doesn't hold up very well. I mean, how secure is a piece of paper with all your information that is just sitting in a box on the side of your road?

A gentlemen I go to church with handles security issues for the USPS. I asked him if his work has gotten any lighter with all the e-billing that people are opting for nowadays. He chuckled and said that it will only get worse and worse.

 

[smackababy]

I don't understand how you morons need reminders. Bills aren't variable billing cycles. They are due on a specific date. And, most companies are flexible enough to allow you to actually pick the date. All of my bills are due on the same day. I know this day. I pay bills before that date. I don't need email or a letter to remind me.

I do ebilling because it saves me having to constantly throw away bills. I view my statements when I need to. I don't look at my electricity, cell phone, or cable bill. They are always nearly identical (only the electric changes and it isn't by much). I have auto pay enabled and I simply get confirmation emails the bill was paid. I have paperless on my credit cards, but I check those regularly regardless.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Security? Privacy?

Out of all the hubub about privacy and data security, you want companies to transmit personal information over the net instead of having a modicum of control over it by keeping it within their own servers?

Paper mail being less secure isn't an argument against companies not transmitting info over email.

"Personal" information? Like how many kWh of electricity I've used in a month? Get real.

Genuinely sensitive information should be omitted. Obviously no bank or credit card information. Omit phone numbers, I suppose. After that, the account number is just about the only other thing that might be considered sensitive. Everything else? Who cares?

.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I hate paper mail, but with paper mail you open it and see whatever it is. The bill information and so on. Ebilling came along, which is great because I don't have to deal with all this paper stuff that I have to later on shred.

BUT...

Why can't they just send me a PDF right in my email. I don't want to have to login to some stupid interface I just want to open an email and have the information in front of me, the same way it works with paper billing, except instead of a piece of paper it's on my screen. Nooooo that would be too easy. Instead each individual company has it's own login system which means for each utility I need to have a separate user name and password, just to view a freaking bill. Yeah yeah security blah blah. It's up to users to protect their email. An email is more secure than a piece of paper physically sitting outside your house all day while you're at work.

This is the same kind of reasoning that hospitals are in the dark ages and still use fax. They think a fax machine sitting next to the bathroom in the waiting room is more secure than an encrypted email.

Couple Qualms with e-Billing

1. If they make changes (Ex: Bank changes to you must have $X in your account or you get a fee) it's much easier to see on a paper statement. You are more likely to look through it. E-Bills you are prone to glance at or just download and not even look at it. This can screw you over big time

2. As you said, it's a pain to gather statements when they don't send them via email.

Here is what I do: I have an email account JUST for accounts. I send all my notices to that account, and I keep them unread in the Inbox until I have the extra time to log-in and download all the statements. I keep a copy of EVERY single statement on my computer.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Security? Privacy?

Out of all the hubub about privacy and data security, you want companies to transmit personal information over the net instead of having a modicum of control over it by keeping it within their own servers?

Paper mail being less secure isn't an argument against companies not transmitting info over email.

How is it different than a paper bill, which is put in my mailbox, which anybody can access? Everything is on autopay so I typically don't even look at the bill anyway, but it would be nice to be able to keep them handy as files, as it's nice to look at them once in a while to make sure there's nothing odd. If they sent them by email it would be as simple as having a rule that puts them all in a folder.

The way it should work is the same thing that's on the paper bill should be sent to your email. For more sensitive stuff like seeing your detailed usage or change settings like contact info then they could have an interface you login to.

The whole "email is not secure" thing is a moot point, because while it may be true, paper mail is far from more secure than email. If someone can hack a mail server, they can probably hack an utility's web page server too.

 

[ninaholic37]

I've often wondered the same thing. Comcast is a good example... They send me a notification with nothing but a total. No itemized list of charges and no announcements of forthcoming rate changes or other account news that I find in the PDF version of my bill that I must login to their customer service web site to view.

My gas and electric bills are the same, just a total and a due date. Does someone actually consider this information too sensitive to be sent via email?

Total is usually all I care about. As long as that number isn't out of the ordinary, we're good. But when it says $77 when my bill is supposed to be $20, yeah, I go to the store/company in person and make sure they cancel me as fast as possible.

 

[OutHouse]

Agreed

Getting a bill in mail = reminder + easy way to look over everything I need to know without "login" or other steps needed.

Screw Ebilling....never done it, never will

I'm the same. Paper is our way and have no intention of changing. I was annoyed when 3 years ago my company switched to e-paystubs. Now twice a month I have to log into ADP and print my pay stub.

 

[OutHouse]

do ebilling because it saves me having to constantly throw away bills.

What .001 seconds?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Total is usually all I care about. As long as that number isn't out of the ordinary, we're good. But when it says $77 when my bill is supposed to be $20, yeah, I go to the store/company in person and make sure they cancel me as fast as possible.

Take gas and electricity, for instance. The totals can vary considerably from month to month, depending (mostly) on the weather, plus some other common factors like maybe having house guests. My monthly PDF utility bills show things like average daily usage rate, historical usage, my usage compared to neighbors, announcements of incentive programs and rate changes, details about tiered rates, etc. Was my meter actually read or is it an estimate? How many days are in this billing?

Why can't they just send me that same PDF in my email?

I'll never go back to paper billing, though. Not just so I can turn around and throw all that paper into the recycling bin. It's not a huge inconvenience to gather up those billing documents and save them. Just that it shouldn't be necessary.