This statement was recently made by a friend of mine.
My response: I am an avid believer in convenience. I receive electronic notifications for the majority of my financial transactions, and would like to eventually change that to ‘all’. I find billing information more accessible if it is deposited, as an electronic document, into my inbox, as I can easily search for any transaction based on date, amount, from which account it was paid, or to whom it was paid; or any other bit of data included in the email.
If I received a paper Bill, firstly I would have to make sure that I don’t misplace it; and then,if it did make it to my home filing ‘system’ (which is a box), it is not readily available – the box is only processed every six months or so, often just before filing season…
So for me, email is the ideal channel through which I can receive important documentation. I use different categories within my email to file the emails that I get. This means that my bank account emails are in a different category to the insurance emails, and so on. The email client I use has significant search functionality, so even if I place a file in the wrong category, this search functionality allows me to find it. It also means that if a category contains a lot of emails and I can’t immediately find files within that category, the search functionality is used.
Furthermore, the key advantage (and benefit) of using electronic filing is the convenience of being able to back up your information. Creating a back up for paper storage is tricky – you essentially need to duplicate your filing cabinet. By creating a back up of your electronic filing cabinet, storing it appropriately and keeping it up to date, your information is protected from most disasters.
In light of this overwhelming evidence, I asked my friend: “Why not? Look how easy it is.”
His response: “I don’t have a computer.”
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