by Erin Barker

Created on: October 30, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

With all of the new technology today it seems almost unrealistic to stay with the traditional paper statements in general. I am a very strict record keeper in my household and always have been even before my husband and I were married. When I was 17 years old and had opened my checking account, had my first credit card to help establish credit, and my cell phone bill going off to college, I thought that I was on top of the world. I thought I was an adult and had entered the world of "paying my way". I had all of this information on paper statements being sent to me at my mother's house and at my college address (which was always changing from dorm to dorm). The papers kept getting lost in the mail. I missed payments to things because I couldn't find the statements. I never kept a check registry or I made mistakes on it for the first few months until I realized my own personal mistakes.

As the months went on, I found out about online statements for everything. From my banking to my cell phone plan. This made things so much easier. It took two months of paying these bills for me to know and remember it takes so many days for this company to clear from my bank and this many hours for my bank to update my new balances. I was able to better keep track of my payments to different bills, keep tabs on my own spending and it was always secure since my statements never had to be re routed to new addresses. Today, the only things that I do get a statement for is any medical bills received through the mail. However, these are even paid online and the bill itself is used to print out the confirmation numbers on payments.

Switching to electronic statements also saves on money in this rapidly approaching economic crisis. Those of us who know that every last penny counts, understand what eliminating small things means. It means not having to buy stamps to send in bills which can be completed electronically. It means writing confirmation numbers instead of printing to save ink and money from buying additional ink cartridges. It means saving the environment by printing less paper and hopefully every little bit helps the economy get back to where it was 10 years ago.

Evaluating the economy today, keeping a better track on our monies and eliminating human error would benefit everyone. There would be no bouncing checks or miscalculation of checking accounts. The computer system is always updating every few hours or every day depending on which bank one happens to be a member of. Technology improves every day and while we become more dependent upon technology, this creates more jobs for the upcoming generations, which will eventually also contribute to benefiting the economy. Creating more jobs, providing more education, and essentially making ourselves indispensable will further propel our survival in the upcoming years.

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