UNITED STATES—In our current society it seems everything is online nowadays. People pay their bills online; everything seems to be more convenient and easier if you utilize a desktop, laptop, cellphone or tablet. With that being said, I ask the question: what do you do if technology falters? Yup, it happens and it can place you in a dicey situation if you have to pay a bill online. Making matters worse, all these companies want you to go paperless or indulge in auto-pay.

Yeah, that is never going to happen with me. I like to see all of my credit card bill statements, in addition, to my bank statements. Why? You’re more inclined to review those documents if you have them in print, versus if you go paperless. When you go paperless you tend to fall in this lazy troupe. You will NOT check your account each month via your credit card company’s online system.

A credit card company just sent me an email asking me to go paperless and I just click ‘Decline.’ You offering me $5 bucks to go paperless just isn’t going to make me change my mind. Sorry, but not sorry. Why? It’s just the company’s way of weaseling out of having to send you a print document via the mail. I review my bank statements to ensure all charges are accurate. On top of that, when you have a debit card, which I think most Americans do (it’s like a checkbook people); you have to review it each month to ensure nothing funky pops up.

Too many Americans because they have gone paperless, have errors or fraudulent charges made to their credit cards or debit cards and don’t catch them in most cases until its way too late. Yeah, going paperless will help the environment and prevent solution, but think about all the other things that are not recycled.

I mean look at soda cans and bottles. Most states don’t deliver a perk for recycling that glass bottle, plastic bottle or can. I think there are 5-6 states that do, but then you have over 40 plus states that don’t. So most people just toss those items in the trash, creating a ton of waste along the way. So you can go a ton of ways with the paperless versus having a physical copy of your credit card statement, bank statement, utility or Cable bill or something else.

However, I will note with many of your utility bills, cellphone, cable or internet bill, you might miss errors if you go paperless. These companies love this because they know the consumer is NOT reviewing the bill and you’re paying fees or charges for items that you should not be paying for and of course that company is not going to inform you of that because it lines their pockets more revenue.

All I can say is yes, at times it can be frustrating going through paper bills, and shredding papers and keeping things organized, but at the same time it’s better to have a clear discrepancy right in front of you versus that you can prove as actual evidence, than relying on an online system that can be faulty and full of errors.