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The choice should be there, and there should be no pressure.

A law could be good if ever there was a real threat.

Don't know about Power of Attorney thing.

I think that there should be choice. Not everybody is computer literate and an aunt of mine is penalised heavily by paying by cheque as she does not have direct debits set up.

Have the blind and partially sighted been given any consideration? Not in my personal experience.

I have no problems with technology, but I want my bills sent by post.

There are two reasons for this:

1 the danger of emails and so on being hacked. That's why I won't do online banking

2 emails so easily get lost amongst the scores that arrive in my inbox every day. It's bad enough keeping up with those, let alone hunting for bills amongst the constant waterfall of information.

I strongly believe consumers should have the choice. Bills through the post are vital to some non-computer people, and to some of us who have computers but are not completely confident on them.
Personally, I do a mixture of both.
I have not been pressured into giving up paper bills.
Yes, there should be legal protection for paper bills.
Yes, I can forsee problems if paper bills are done away with.

Choice choice choice!
Yes there is pressure!
Yes I can foresee problems if I was to die.
Mind you, my filing system is such a mess anyway, I defy son or DD to find their way round it

Definately choice! I had a real job getting my Father's car insurance paperwork sent by post, they kept telling him they would email him and didn't believe him when he said he dud not have a computer or an email! He is 86!

A mixture of both. I'm fine with online billing and banking, but ask for contracts and policies to be mailed by post. It's too tempting for companies to send offers and documents my email, but if I have to print them all out at home it uses up a lot of expensive ink and paper. If my computer packs up, I'm scuppered!

There should definitely be a choice. My husband was persuaded to change energy suppliers recently, and said he did not'do' online billing, but when it came to it , he was supposed to put meter reading online, and there was no choice.Fortunately the company returned us to our previous suppliers when I emailed them and told them he had been promised a paper information pack, which was not received. However it's now costing more .....presumably because the meter is read for us, and paid by direct debit.

There should be choice and no pressure. I don't do online banking, in fact I only do my house and car insurance online,and I'm not really happy with the documents being emailed.
I wonder what would happen if I could no longer afford a laptop or broadband, or even remember where I've saved the virtual documents.

I do some things on line. I keep a credit card with a £2000 limit for computer stuff, amazon,M&S and john Lewis etc. many bills are standing orders or direct debits, council tax,TV licence. Quite why eon likes us to put our meter readings on line and then sends a man around to bang on the door and demand a view of our meters in the garage is beyond me. I complain but he says it gives him work. Milkman ,papers and gardener and cleaner all prefer cash or cheques. I am penalised by orange for wanting a paper bill but their call centre is so utterly useless that I couldn't rely on them to melt a chocolate teapot,let alone deal on line with a discrepancy. I tend to prefer phone bank accounts or go in personally but I'm lucky in that I have a variety of banks within walking distance. I think there are far too many people who can't do their job properly. I tried to move a largish sum from a holding account into a current account to put it into a second bank with a marginally better rate of interest. It took a good hour and my patience was wearing thin as I was treated by a (new) bank clerk as if I was a money launderer. Normally I love Lloyd's bank, we have a wonderful manager but I do think there should be the ability to distinguish a Mafia boss from a retired housewife. Perhaps a pair of sunglasses with a cross through them might show you were a trustworthy customer and minions would move your own money into your own account without faff. Seems to me the dishonest manage without problems. Both sons in law deal with internet security in their respective fields and say that anything can be hacked, anything at all.My you caught me on a bad day rant over.

I do absolutely everything online and far prefer to get emails rather than paper in the post. It saves a lot environmentally!
I also find that a high percentage of items supposedly posted never arrive!
Far less reliable.

I am self employed so prefer and need to keep a paper copy of phone, bank, energy, car, insurance and expenses for tax shite. I probably pay more for these paper bills but I need them and its easier to keep track of them and file them.

I much prefer online billing and banking etc as I have almost no faith in the postal service.
I don't see why it would raise any more problems for anyone acting as my attorney than paper statements would.

I do everything online, but do miss paper at times. I also worry about people who do not tell someone their passwords, in the event of illness or death it could cause huge problems.

DBH used to be addicted to paperwork and would not throw anything away. We were drowning under the weight of box files, their appearance (ugly) and lack of space to store them. Online billing has saved my sanity.

It's just as easy to mislay an online bill as it is to mislay a piece of paper, though. Things still get filed in the wrong folders.

And yes, it is cheaper to use online rather than paper, of course it is, the postage now and potentially having to record it as well - it's so expensive. If someone really wants a piece of paper, they can always print it off for themselves.

BUT my mother will not go near a computer. I have to do her shopping from afar at times and she panics until she has the piece of paper in her hand that says that it has all been paid for. She can barely grasp Amazon and Crocus was a complete failure, even with my reasonably computer literate stepfather. Of course they need the choice.

And what about the people whose laptops/computers/tablets break down and who cannot afford to replace them for a couple of months, if at all? So many libraries have closed that that is not an option for many, either.

I am now paying £1.50 per bill to BT, as I find it difficult to check bills on-line as, at age 81, my eyes aren't what they were. I was pressurised to go for paper-free billing but refused so am now charged.
So far I am getting my Scottish Power bills by post but the pressure is starting there, too.
I feel it should be my choice as to how I receive my bills.

Hi This is a very interesting thread. I think technology has its disadvantages for the older user. I have just been diagnosed with early dementia in my early 50,s and find myself struggling with passwords etc. Often too I forget that I have direct debits going out of my bank. I am lucky to have a daughter who is very helpful, and who I can trust{also here now}. It is wrong to make people who prefer to use cheques or pay points, pay more by missing out on the discounts given by paying by direct debits. Also it is very wrong to give a discount for paperless bills. It is a way of reminding us to pay a bill as well as an account of our payments. Some older people may have access to a computer, but may not have access to a printer. Then the cost of inks and paper can mount up. It seems we need more older people employed in the customer care departments of these large companies. People who understand that even though it is the age of cyber everything, we are not all the same and need to be treated as individuals.

You should be asked once if you wish to have paperless bills and then left to do so if you wish.

I often receive emails requesting a move to paper-free billing. This has ambiguous wording so it is not clear if the firm is suddenly going to move totally online.

We are often asked for paper bills as proof of residence when opening bank accounts etc so without them we wuld have major pproblems

Living in France means that most of our bills are paid online and we receive bank statements and phone bills on line, all very convenient for us. My mother, who is 91, has been penalized by Talk talk for not having a computer. They offer a pay up front discount for line rental, available on line! Luckily I can organize this for her, plus if you receive your bill on line you save £22 a year which automatically excludes many pensioners who have no internet access. Whilst I see the benefits of the internet and use it to suite my needs I feel strongly that a potentially vulnerable section of our community is at a disadvantage and this will only get worse the more we rely on the internet.

Yes, we do most of our payments etc online, but I am fortunate i having a husband who is a retired local authority computer officer and is familiary with online systems.

He still distrusts direct debits because they are in effect giving some organisation the right to take a variable sum of money from your bank account. He uses them under protest when there is a significant saving by doing so and when the payee is a reputable organisation.

Still I think paper bills and payment by cheque should be made available to all customers who want them. I'd go further and suggest that you should be able to pay your gas or electriticity bill in cash by going into a showroom and handing over used tenners like we could in the old days!

I like the tidyness (no shelves of box files) and eco-friendly way of using the internet, BUT there are still some instances where you need to provide proof of ID and take a printed bill, so until companies STOP asking for printed bills as proof of ID then we should have a choice.

My credit card just changed from printed to online only, which is fine as I look at it everyday online but my mother-in-law does not even own a pc , so what would she do?

I feel we should be able to choose without prejudice whether to have online or paper bills, without being penalised for paper bills.

The other problem with online only bills is that if only one partner deals with the online bills , if they die suddenly there is no physical paper trail for the partner to access the company, this happened recently as my daughter has just died, her partner does not use a pc and he had a terrible time trying to get companies to change back, they were saying stupid things like we will email you a password, he doesnt even have an email address, its like all companies ASSUME everyone is IT literate nowadays!

I prefer to manage our finances online, although also prefer paper copies of statements and bills. I manage all the household finances, and if I became unable to do this my husband wouldn't know what to do.

Companies such as energy companies pressure you to move online by offering discounts for online account management and paying by direct debits. Although I prefer to pay the amount due, it is almost impossible due to discounts offered for online management.

I feel that the right to receive paper bills should be protected, as it much easier to keep track. If anything happened, at least there are paper copies of bank statements and bills which should help when sorting out your affairs.

I like 'paperless' and use the Internet for absolutely everything. However as others have said, we often need to show a 'paper bill' for ID etc. and in those cases a self-printed screen-grab of an online statement doesn't always cut it! So we should all be able to get paper bills whenever we need them and it's disgraceful that people are being charged for paper bills in those instances.
On a separate note, I bank with the Co-op and Smile. In spite of the fact that Co-operative claim to be 'super-green' in every respect, they churn out statements for every account in our house, month after month, and there's nothing we cann do to stop them! Very annoying!