A Paperless Society?

We are now nearly three decades into the home computer era. Yet the paperless, cashless, electronic
society this "revolution" promised seems nearly as far away as ever.

For example: I have a dozen or so bills that I pay monthly, semi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or
annually. About half of these are done by some form of automatic funds transfer. One of these was the
phone bill, which used a pay-by-phone system. This required a phone call each month that took as long
as writing and mailing a check, but it did eliminate the licking and sticking and the 33 cent postage cost.
Now this bill is deducted directly from my bank account.

I pay my car insurance bill via the Internet. When I started a few months ago, I had to enter all the
numbers on my check, with characters such as # @ and & replacing the computer symbols that are
part of the routing number. I had to look at a key to determine which character to enter. When I made
my first payment after the latest renewal, this requirement had been eliminated. So there is progress.

I have a first and second mortgage on my home, both negotiated with my employee credit union. The
first one was transferred to a third party, and is paid by payroll deduction. The credit union will not
accept payroll deduction for the other one. Instead I must write a check each month and mail it to the
credit union where my payroll check is deposited. Go figure.

(From The Interface, newsletter of Fresno Commodore User Group, via the Commodore Information
Center http://home.att.net/~rmestel/commodore.html)