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If 10,000 Biters go electronic with just one of their accounts, over a lifetime we'll save 3,481 trees.

COCKTAIL FACT

In '05, a man sick of receiving credit card offers scrawled "Never waste a tree" across one and sent it back. Chase Bank issued him a card under the name "Never Waste Tree."

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home ›   tip library ›   Online Credit Card Statements

Do you really need a paper record of that $90 charge from Jiggles Gentlemen's Club?

The Bite

We're guessing no. So give the paper shredder a rest and opt for credit card e-statements to save big on trees.

The Benefits

  • Save trees. If all Americans viewed and paid bills online, we'd save 18.5 million trees each year.
  • Protect your identity. According to a 2003 study, web bill pay reduces identity theft risk by as much as 18%.
  • Easily access old statements online.

Personally Speaking

Always paranoid those guys sifting through her recycle bin might be looking for more than just aluminum cans, Sara happily switched her credit card bills over to e-statements as soon as they were offered.

Wanna Try?

Credit card companies love this tip 'cuz they save money by skipping the paper and postage. Most offer online statements - just check their website or give 'em a call.

Mar 02,2007


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All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.


Yeah, Yeah, Sign Up for Electronic Statements

Today's tip is one of those no-brainers, so it seems a bit superfluous to blog about it.  Go to your bank sites and sign up for paperless statements.  The end.

 Let's talk about more fun (green) things instead:

Mercury is in retrograde.  Has been for a bit.  Apparently, when Merc is retro, travel and communication and technology are impaired (so THIS is why my computer is crashing) and people you used to know long ago crawl out of the woodwork (so THIS is why I am getting emails from ex-boyfriends and phone calls from old bosses). 

I've been drinking store-bought kombucha like a crazy woman.  I don't know if I'm healthier, but I'm certainly more poor, and have been drinking less wine.

I've decided I no longer want to marry either Mark Morford OR Gavin Newsom.  Leo DiCaprio, however, seems to get eco-hotter every day.

OK, so the mercury thing didn't really have anything to do with being green.  Sustainable fish, anyone?

-Heather... off to sunny happy hour... to drink something OTHER than kombucha this time...

 

 


Biter Comments...
I hate to be the picky one here, but I believe you made a mistake on your blog. I think you meant to say either "Go to your bank sites and sign up for e-statements," or "Go to your bank sites and sign up to stop paper statements." Sorry to be THAT person, but at heart, I really hate to let typos go unaddressed. But I do love your tips and blogs! Keep up the good work!

Posted by: Another Jen | March 02, 2007 at 03:24 AM

Jeez, we sure do have a lot of Jen's floating around here - we're smart people! I LOVE how Leo DiCaprio went from a crazy bar-hopping "youngster" to a socially responsible man. Gotta love that. Now if he'd only stop dating supermodels and date a regular chick :) I love kombucha. I swear it gives me an alcohol-ish buzz. No complaints here!

Posted by: theotherJB | March 02, 2007 at 06:38 AM

It would be interesting to compare the costs of power, cooling, etc. for the web servers needed for electronic statements. It may not be trees but something is powering the electricity needed to host the info and send all those bits through cyberspace.

Posted by: Jan Dahlquist | March 02, 2007 at 09:17 AM

I want to offer a word of caution: if you sign up for e-billing, make sure the bills are actually getting through. I signed up online to have my Visa bill sent to me electronically, and the site told me that it might take one to two billing cycles for the e-bills to start arriving (puzzling in itself, because every other e-bill I've signed up for has started up right away). What Bank of America didn't tell me was that delivery of my paper bills would stop immediately--so for two months, I didn't get my bill at all, and I only found out about it when I logged on to the site and saw that my account was listed as "past due" with interest owed. When I called to complain about this, the bank insisted that it was my responsibility to make sure my bill got paid on time, even if I never received it! It took a complaint to the Better Business Bureau to set them straight. So make sure you're actually getting your e-bills before you discontinue the paper bills. A note to Jan Dahlquist: It seems to me that any company that has a webpage (which pretty much all banks do) has to have its web servers up and running at all times anyhow, regardless of how many people are getting their statements electronically. So the extra energy use would most likely be negligible. And hey, theotherJB, how do you know those supermodels Leo's dating aren't "regular chicks" at heart? :-)

Posted by: haverwench | March 05, 2007 at 08:57 AM

^^ My brother endured the same headache with Bank of America and now refuses to sign up for online statements and use online payments.

Posted by: ava hu | April 23, 2007 at 12:20 PM

I would love to be able to do this but if you ever get audited, you'll wish you had everthing on paper. Also, as a business owner, a CPA requires all transactions and cash spent to have a paper receipt. We just aren't to this point yet, but I am hopefull.

Posted by: gypsyrhodes | July 06, 2007 at 10:33 AM

hello my friends ar you good

Posted by: imad | July 18, 2007 at 06:24 AM

But if I sign up for electronic statement I still have to print it because I have to give it to my accountant at the end of the year. RBC Royal Bank is now sending me all the checks that I wrote copied on 1 single sheet of paper - very convenient.

Posted by: Zephyr | September 18, 2008 at 11:27 AM

LOL! This is very interesting... online electronics store

Posted by: Gino Green | September 23, 2008 at 02:09 AM

i think this one is more interesting... apply for credit cards online

Posted by: ketikong | September 24, 2008 at 02:15 AM

Financial crises really hurt countries, its the imbalance of money and other lending institutions that hurt not only the US but throughout the world. Manufactured Home Refinance

Posted by: Tyron | October 14, 2008 at 01:29 AM

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