Kurt Staines - KJS Consulting Limited - Basildon 29 November, 2010, 14:51 0 likes

Perhaps it's because certain banks (e.g. HSBC) don't include the address of the account holder in the statement, which means the statement cannot be used as a proof of address.

A classic case of not providing the same level of service once it's moved on-line.

If the banks want customers to move across then they have to provide at least the same level of existing service, or preferably an improved level of service.

Michael Wright - Tilte, Taxd, Welleasy - London 29 November, 2010, 15:01 0 likes

@Kurt - Good point - many banks substitute a transactional history for the paper statement - which is not the same thing. 

However a bank statement is not a good proof of address - banks rely on utilities for their KYC requirements and hence the use of any statement as an indication of where one lives is very tenuous.

Everyone is relying on someone else and if the weakest link is proved incorrect the whole chain comes tumbling down like a house of cards.

Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 30 November, 2010, 12:01 0 likes

I'm a heavy user of online stock trading, e-commerce and Internet Banking. However, when it comes to statements, I've a very strong preference for paper - to the extent that I recently threatened a bank with canceling a credit card issued by them if they continued to avoid sending paper statements with the excuse that they were sending e-statements.

Resistance to change from my side is admittedly one reason, but my preference for paper statements is driven by many other factors that are beyond my control:  

 

1. I recently went through an account verification process by PayPal for my business account. PayPal insists only on paper statements as proof of address - it even says that it won't accept scanned versions of online statements. If a web-based company like PayPal insists on paper, you can imagine the situation with brick-and-mortar ones - Kurt has a very valid point. And, almost all of them ask for proof documents not older than 3 months, so an approach of issuing a paper statement for one month, followed by 11 e-statements for the remaining months of the year, won't work. 
2. Every time I receive an e-statement, I've to remember and supply some kind of account credentials - ex: last four digits of the account #, date of birth in a specified format, etc. - to open it.  There's simply no comparison with the convenience of tearing the envelope open and reading the paper statement.  
3. With identity theft on the rise, banks and others keep advising us to check our statements carefully and spot any false transactions. Doing this is very easy with a highlighter and a paper statement. How do I do this with an e-statement that typically comes in the form of a non-editable PDF file?

 

 

Michael Wright - Tilte, Taxd, Welleasy - London 30 November, 2010, 17:02 0 likes

@Ketharaman - There will always be a segment of a customer base that wants paper for various reasons - and you may fall into that segment for you own reasons but let's look at each one:

• Our clients realise that they can turn off paper if they provide assurance that when paper is needed it can be easily obtained. We add a "send in post please" button at the end of the eStatement. This means customers can always get the paper and allows them to switch to eStatements with confidence.
• I agree that the process of registering and logging into a website is time consuming but clicking on an email attachment and entering your date of birth is just as simple as opening an envelop and has zero risk of a paper cut.
• Some PDF products allow the use of a highlighter on screen - but I concede that a yellow highlighter on paper is the best in this instance. 

Overall, the convenience of receiving my eStatement in my chosen inbox and storing this in my own online vault outweighs the comfort of the old paper processes every time.

Ketharaman Swaminathan - GTM360 Marketing Solutions - Pune 01 December, 2010, 09:08 0 likes

@Michael: 

Agreed. But, going by the following statement in the Forrester report, this segment seems to be in the majority :"Worse still, 37% of account holders who receive a paper statement today say they will never abandon paper in favor of online statements."

Your suggestion for "Send in post please" is an excellent feature for boosting adoption of e-statements. However, I haven't come across a single bank actually offering it and don't really trust a single one of them to invest in establishing processes to handle interruptions to their STP flows such exceptions would probably cause.

IMHO, herein lies the crux of the overall problem: Technology supports a feature, individual customers don't necessarily implement it for whatever reason, customer adoption is stunted. Given that customers have no way of influencing how a given customer will implement a given technology, they form wrong - and often negative - opinions about the technology as a whole. When that happens, it's not a great position for technology providers to be in. 

 

 

 

A Finextra member 01 December, 2010, 12:19 0 likes

Michael, I totally agree - inbox delivery is what's missing.

I class myself as a fairly 'switched on' consumer.  I have a Twitter account, FB account, 3 different email accounts and quite a few more other social media accounts too.

I also consider myself to be 'green-keen'.  Put the two together and on paper I'm the perfect profile for online statements.  Yes?  No.

Although I've signed up for some eStatements I still prefer the paper version.  The reason - not enough time (or patience).

I just don't have the capacity to regularly go to every one of the banks where I  have a relationship and remember to get the statement - and then when I really do need it, I find the hassle of getting the old data not worth the effort.  

If however I got my statement delivered to the one place I am always connected to no matter where I am - my inbox - and have the ability to store it on my own PC, well then that would be a winning solution and one that would see me make the switch - completely.

Bo Harald - Transmeri, Demos, Real Time Economy Program,MyData - Helsinki Region 05 December, 2010, 08:42 0 likes

The first thing to do should be transparent pricing. Customers pay every cent also for paper statements - even if it is not charged visibly. My experience is that when customers see the cost - they take logical action - in their own interest.

The problem is often that consumer organizations too often oppose these "sticks" (should be called negative carrots instead...) - so they act very much against the true interest of the consumer - and in this case also against reducing CO2 - in the case of paper invoicing the latest study end up at some 8m tons a year in EU...