5 Ways To Green Your Banking Habits.
If you are like most people, you have multiple bank accounts, several different utility company bills, a few credit cards as well as a regular paycheck that you have to deposit. Dealing with all these is difficult enough without considering the environmental impact of them all if you are still using paper versions of all of it! Before I get started, I have to tell you - I have been using online banking exclusively for a few years now and contrary to what some might think, I have not had any huge errors occur or any of my account information stolen by cyber-thieves. In fact, online banking is safer to use as there are not any paper statements or bills sitting in your mailbox at home! OK, with that being said let’s take a look at several ways to green your banking habits.
First off, get started using online banking. You can access any of your accounts online to transfer money or pay bills, and you can get copies of statements in PDF format instead of waiting for printed account statements to show up at your home, saving them to your computer for safekeeping. I have not seen a paper statement from any of my banks for years, but I still have the PDF versions stored on my backup drive. It’s pretty convenient to not have to store all those reams of paper in my file cabinet!
Pay your bills online. Almost every company that sends you a paper bill will A. gladly stop sending you a paper bill and instead have them online for you, and B. accept online bill paying through their website or your bank. The only check I write every month is for my rent, as everything else is paid online.
Stop it with the blank checks! It might take you 4 phone calls, but you CAN get those blank cash advance checks from your credit card company to stop showing up. As soon as you get one, call the number listed in the letter and tell them you no longer want to receive the checks. Rinse and repeat a few more times for good measure, as they don’t seem to listen that well. Eventually, the checks will stop coming - I barely get a trickle now that I have called over and over. If you are getting unsolicited credit card offers but don’t want them, try OptOutPrescreen to get them to stop.
Get your paycheck direct deposited. While I am sure there are some smaller companies out there that do not offer it, most employers can do direct deposit of your paycheck. I know you might be nervous that you won’t get your check, but it has never happened to me in all the years I have had direct deposit. Besides, do you like standing in line at the ATM on Thursday with all those other people?
Bank locally if at all possible. I know this is difficult for some people, but if you have a local bank try to use it. I live in Los Angeles so I have plenty of banks to choose from, all within walking distance of my house. However, I don’t have too many smaller credit unions I can join here…but when I move to a smaller town I will use them for sure. Credit unions are way better for the community than your typical big bank, as they keep the money they loan out within your area and tend to offer better loan rates for autos and mortgages. Plus, wouldn’t it be nice to walk into a bank and have them actually know you? I have not stepped foot inside my bank in at least 2 years, it’s kind of sad!
There you go, just a few short tips on greening your banking habits. Do you have any more ideas on how you do it?
Share with others:
StumbleUpon |
Reddit
|
Digg |
Del.icio.us
If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.
You might also like:
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Ryan
Try to opt-out of ATM receipts…I know BofA has some ATMs where you can set up your preferences to never get receipts. You can always look it up online anyway, and when was the last time you had to show someone else your ATM receipt as proof of something?
Apr 30th, 2008
David
That’s a good one Ryan, thanks for adding that!
Apr 30th, 2008
Reply to “5 Ways To Green Your Banking Habits.”