Automating Downoading of Online Billing

Is anyone automating the downloading of e-billing statements that are not emailed to you?

My Verizon bill is not emailed so it must be downloaded. Wondered i you all had any ideas of best practices in doing that.

Thanks,
Greg

I simply notate emails from senders like banks, PayPal, etc as VIPs - I configure very few of those - so alerts float up for me to deal with easily. I prefer to manually visit sites that involves my finances anyway - sometimes there are notices for customers I’d want to read that I’d otherwise miss.

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Keyboard Maestro can do this for you. I have a routine that logs into 3 different banks to download transaction data.

This link will get you started Browser Form Action

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I use filethis.com. They have arrangements with most of the credit cards, PayPal, cell bills, etc that I use. They automatically download new statements and will even email you alerts when bills are due.

I used to have it download the statements directly to Evernote, but now I download to a folder monitored by Hazel and she files them away after changing the file names to something more uniform and intelligible.

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What is the purpose to download the statements, if we can always access it from the banks, utility provider? Just would like to understand the reason. Want to make sure I am not missing anything important. I am, not young, not old, and want to make sure if I should safe documents to do so now, before something that I may not be thinking of happens.

First off, you can’t always access the statements. All the ones I deal with have a limit for how long they will keep them online. Typically 1 year sometimes as much as 3 years. Here in the US we have to have tax papers available for up to 7 years after the last date of filing so typically (if you file with an extension) you need to keep the papers for at least 8 years.

Second, there are many cases where you will need to have long term proof of residency, security clearances, some bank loans, starting some types of businesses. Having utility and bank statement documents makes that process go more smoothly.

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I always forget that many countries don’t have resident registration and proof of residency is through bills.

For me:
I like the “I have what I have” approach. Storage is cheap and accessing a bill in a local directory is always faster than going through several online sites. My yeary tax statement takes 15 minutes, since I pre-tag stuff. If I ever get audited, I can pull all the statements/bills in seconds.

Thank you all for your response. I will make a Hazel rule with some other tips to download them and archive them. Those are great points and never had thought about them…