{"id":1946,"date":"2018-06-17T17:29:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/paperless_billing\/"},"modified":"2020-11-06T19:59:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T19:59:01","slug":"paperless_billing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/paperless_billing\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeling the pressure to go paperless? – National Consumers League"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"By Melissa Cuddington, NCL public policy intern<\/p>\n

Feel forced to go digital or pay\u00a0for paper bills and statements? You are not alone. Many consumers are beginning to push back against the \u201cgoing paperless\u201d trend that has become so popular among credit card and other companies that send\u00a0bills to millions of consumers.<\/p>\n

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Charging\u00a0for a paper bill is not a popular practice among consumers.\u00a0In fact, according to a survey conduced by Toluna and Two Sides North America, 83 percent of American consumers believe that they\u00a0should not be charged more as a result of\u00a0opting for a paper bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NCL and Consumer Action have agreed to work with \u201cKeep Me Posted North America\u201d (KMPNA), based out of Chicago, and yes supported by the paper industry — to raise these concerns. We happen to agree that preserving\u00a0consumer choice when it comes to\u00a0choosing what type of bill you receive is important.\u00a0Keep Me Posted is working in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This specific issue\u00a0is of significant importance\u00a0when it comes to the work that NCL does on behalf of consumers and promoting their best interests in the marketplace. The\u00a0campaign is currently working to represent more vulnerable consumers: seniors, low-income populations, the disabled, and those on Indian Reservations and in rural areas who may not have access to\u00a0broadband. Charging them $3.50 or more because they choose a paper bill is just plain wrong. We believe anyone who chooses a paper bill should not have to pay for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This consumer issue also has relevance to\u00a0the\u00a0increasing occurrence of\u00a0digital fraud in the United States. According to a 2017 survey done by the Competition Bureau in Canada, digital fraud is increasing at a\u00a0rapid rate. From 2011 to 2016, digital fraud increased\u00a0significantly\u00a0from $4.95 billion to $7.95 billion. This paperless trend\u00a0is\u00a0increasing the likelihood\u00a0that\u00a0consumers\u00a0are the victims of telemarketing and Internet fraud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is\u00a0important\u00a0that consumers, especially elders and those in low-income and rural areas have the option to receive a paper bill without incurring additional costs. For many Americans, $3.50 x 12\u00a0months is extra money they don\u2019t have — and multiply times several bills and it really adds up.\u00a0Additionally, the option of\u00a0receiving\u00a0a paper bill\u00a0is seen as a\u00a0more convenient and secure\u00a0form of payment.\u00a0In fact, 78 percent of people keep hard copies of important documents at home, because they believe it is the safest and most secure way to store their information\u00a0(Two Sides North America, 2017).\u00a0<\/p>\n

We believe this is a good coalition and one that will push hard to preserve consumer choice and do away with the odious practice of charging consumers who can least afford it for the convenience of a paper bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Cuddington, NCL public policy intern Feel forced to go digital or pay\u00a0for paper bills and statements? You are not alone. Many consumers are beginning to push back against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[285,14,15,270,281],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1946"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13706,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions\/13706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}