Should You Go Paperless With Your Credit Card Statements?

Having a credit card is a big financial responsibility. It's on you to pay your bills, keep track of the physical card, and ensure that your data doesn't fall into the hands of thieves and scammers.

Your credit card statements are your ally in account management, letting you track your spending and payments month by month. As such, it's a good idea to check yours every month. But does it matter whether your statements are in paper or digital form? Let's take a look at the benefits (and potential drawbacks) of going paperless.

The case for paperless statements

If you opt in for paperless statements, the biggest change you'll notice is a lighter load from the mailbox. And if you're the kind of person who dislikes receiving stacks of paper in the mail (I am also raising my hand), this could be the best benefit of digital-only credit card statements for you. You're saving trees and sparing yourself potential papercuts.

On a more serious note, opting for digital-only statements will give bad actors one fewer avenue to steal your financial data. If you've ever gotten busy for a few days and forgotten to check the mail, or even took a vacation and didn't ask a friendly neighbor to bring your mail in for you, your money and identity could be at risk. Thieves could easily riffle around in your mailbox and make off with your credit card statements if you receive them in paper form.

Opting for paperless statements might also save you some money, as some credit card issuers actually charge cardholders for paper statements. While the chance to stop scammers and save money are attractive reasons to go paperless, there are a couple potential downsides.

The case against paperless statements

While your paper statements will crumble into dust over a period of decades, they will certainly last longer than their digital cousins. Some credit card issuers won't make very old statements available to cardholders, so if you're hoping to go back into your statements from more than a year ago, you might be out of luck. If you've got a business credit card, it might not be a bad idea to stay the course with paper statements, or print out copies of digital ones and save them, so you have records going back as far as you need.

If you're only managing your own credit card accounts, you likely have all the information you need (such as an account login and password) to view statements anytime you want. But if you're overseeing someone else's accounts (perhaps an elderly relative), you might not have that information. In this instance, receiving paper statements is your only shot to make sure there aren't suspicious charges or other red flags with the account.

Which is right for you?

Ultimately, you're going to have to take a look at your own habits and needs to decide whether to go paperless with your credit card statements. If you know you won't be compelled to actually seek out a digital statement on the card issuer's website, while a paper copy landing in the mailbox will prompt you to open it and have a look, stick with paper. But if you're tired of emptying the mailbox only to shred paper and fill your recycling bin, going paperless might just be for you.