Printing Account Statements

[thebbqguy]

What happens if Americans suddenly wake up one morning and have $0 in their bank accounts?" (heard on This Week With George Stephanopoulos)

How many of you have a methodical plan to print hard copies of your account statements?

I asked my best friend from college who is a FDIC branch manager that question and he said it's vitally important that you print your retirement account statements on a regular basis. Hopefully nothing like this happens, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. In fact, it's probably a near certainty that it will happen at some point with hacking becoming a societal norm these days.

What better way for those up to no good to wage a low cost war than disrupt the financial system?

[George the original one]

Er, uhm, you mean your bank doesn't send you printed statements?!?

[rube]

In the Netherlands it is very common not to receive any printed bank accounts. If you want to receive them you have to specifically select the option to receive them (and pay a small fee for it).
I (can) receive and/or can download PDF's though which I store and can print out.

But I am wondering, an account statement can be altered easily. Even if printed or received an original it doesn't prove really anything as it could be easily a fake one?

[vexed87]

What happens if Americans suddenly wake up one morning and have $0 in their bank accounts?"

"Hurrah, someone paid off the overdraft?!"

I receive statements by pdf and SMS to avoid waste.

[Chad]

I don't print mine. Just save them electronically and back that up.

[henrik]

I don't see how a printout will prove anything, except perhaps as a file encrypted with a timestamp or certified on paper by a signature from an official representative of the bank. It might not hurt to have it for your own information though. I sure do hope that my bank is more diligent about backups than I am with my personal data:)
The only bank I've received regular printed statements from was one in Germany. I tried to get them to stop that, but didn't succeed. I don't think it's very common any more, at least in most European countries, for both environmental and privacy reasons.

[jennypenny]

I don't get any printed statements anymore. The last thing I need is some snoopy Stepford neighbor getting my mail by mistake and looking at my vanguard statement to see how much I've got in the kitty.

I save my statements and confirmations to a thumb drive weekly. A printed statement isn't proof of anything, but it helps to get the ball rolling if there's a problem. Vanguard made two $$ mistakes in our accounts in the past year (scary, right?). When I called to get it corrected, it was obvious they thought I wasn't looking at the right screen or that I did something wrong. Once I faxed them copies of the paperwork, they changed their tune and started an investigation immediately.

[Scott 2]

I think this is why some are advocates of keeping a portion of assets in hard goods - previous metal, cash, ammo, etc.

I don't see much point in keeping the monthly statement, The bank could easily claim it is fake if it doesn't match their system. Short of working through their service reps, an individual doesn't have much recourse for a bank error.

[Ydobon]

Most banks in the UK are working to push people towards paperless statements, some even make it a condition of receiving favourable headline interest rates etc.

It makes a lot of sense, saving time and money for the bank and avoiding wasted resources, which is good for the planet.

The only time you really need bank statements is for mortgage applications, so every 2 years or more.

I do keep £20/mth or so in cash to hand, useful for minor emergencies, paying contractors, or the delivery guy if I CBA cooking

[thebbqguy]

I think the word "printed" is a generic term being used for actually keeping a copy of the statement whether it is electronic, printed, or whatever.

Banks don't send statements anymore in many cases but I would wager there are millions of people who don't keep the PDF file, don't keep printed statements and have no idea how they'd prove the money that was in the account.

Sure, it may not be "official" but at least it's a starting point. And for me, when a 26 year employee and manager of a FDIC regional office recommends keeping a printed copy, I'm going to take his advice.

Are those keeping electronic copies storing them in an EMP-proof storage container? I bet most don't think about EMP's or sunflares, but sunflares are a real possibility. Do some reading about the ramifications of a sunflare and what it does to computer systems including laptops, desk tops, cell phones, etc.

I think the point of bringing this up on a national news program is to make the point that basing the entire financial system on electronic "money" and "transactions" has higher risk to the public than most banks and the government will talk about publicly.

(My friend at the FDIC really didn't want to talk about in specific detail either.)