A bill for a bill? What gives?

To Ms Angela Browning: So you have a computer with which to go online, and you have a car with which to drive to the library. Lucky you. The best part is - you think everybody does. Talk about sheltered? Or maybe just spoiled. "Jeez" right back atcha!

Yah it might be the 21st century. Wages are not of the 21st century though to be able to afford a computer & exorbitant monthly fees.

I have internet access, but why should I waste my paper and ink? If the day comes that a vendor goes strictly paper, I will simply print every bill, because I keep my statements (bank, utilities, mortgage, etc.,) for at least 10 years.

There are times that I need information about something from 5 years ago, such as how often I was calling a number, or how much I was spending on natural gas. Without a paper bill, that information may be hard to track down.

With every bill, there will be a dead tree.

Why should I pay for a company's billing. That's all figured into the charges anyway - for those of us who get billing online - and save the company money - there should be a discount - and for those of us who allow electronic transfer - it should be a bigger discount. This is just another way for big business to increase their never ending profits. And fyi - there are plenty of us who don't want to expose our computers and information online - that includes bills. Just because you don't care if your information is out there 24/7 for identity theft and hackers alike - many of us enjoy our privacy and like keeping the post office in business.

I can understand not wanting to put your personal information out there into cyberspace. However, I have been doing all my banking and bill paying online for about 8 years now. So far I have had no trouble at all. I understand the periodic need to review old bills, even ones from a few years in the past. When I receive the email notice that my bill is ready for viewing, I go to the site, download the billing and then file it in the appropriate file for future reference. I realize that not all companies use the same programs, however all the ones that I have had the good fortune to deal with have all the bills ready in a PDF format. The electric comany also provided me with a free download of AdobeReader so that I could work with the PDF files. Once filed, they are there on your computer until you delete them. It is the same way with my bank. I get all my statements via email and I download the monthly statements into an appropriate folder. As far as the cost of all of this... I pay only $35.00 a month for DSL through AT&T and $4.99 for Virus Protection through AOL. AOL is now free and has been since 2006. It is going to take time for people to get used to the idea but everything has been moving toward "paperless" for a number of years now. I suppose that the companies that are now charging to cover the costs of printed billings are attempting to both offset the costs as well as do their part for the "green movement". Either way, I will admit that I basically did it for convenience because I worked three jobs at the time and it was easy to forget to mail the payment. I was paying out a lot in late fees. Now that I do everything online, I have no more of that as I can sit down at midnight or one in the morning and pay a bill. I always get a confirmation number immediately as well as a follow up email thanking me for my payment. I simply file that in a pending file until I actually see it reflected on my bank statement. My bank actually has an internet fraud dept who researches any online purchases that I dispute. They are very good at what they do. But for those who are still really concerned about the identity theft, please do yourself a favor, LifeLock is real and it works and it’s really worth every penny of the $24.99 a month that you pay for the security of keeping your identity in your wallet where it belongs. Whether you use the internet or not, identity theft is the fastest growing crime world wide; it happens to someone every 3 seconds. Believe it or not, the greater majority of identity theft is through dumpster diving, people leaving their ATM receipts in the machine or on the floor next to it or even throwing them in the trash. There are a million ways to get your identity without the use of the internet.

Angela Browning: Do you know most people? You should never assume that because you and yours do something, most people do. I do...but my parents and siblings don't deal with paying on line. Neither do a majority of my neighbors...but I don't assume anything because of that. I don't know most people...do you?

And worse yet, they even charge you for the cap and gown seperate from the rest of the graduation costs. Next, each level of education you graduate from, costs even more and a new and more expensive cap and gown is required. My daughter just got her PhD and she rented the cap and gown. It had to be returned in 4 days or she would have to pay $800. I say that cap, gown and hood and no one will convince me it is anywhere close to worth $800. Welcome to our world. They even screw you to reward you for completing higher education. LOL

Tell it like it is Motorhead. Talk about a waste of time and effort. Press two for spanish is. All of the pamplets and labels are printed two times. Who the hell is running this country, Mexico? It probably is. 20 million is the same amount of mexicans here that they have in their capital city. That is BS.

Well said.

Now there's an idea that has merit.