Jayne Dowle: All hail snail mail, our lives aren’t all online

Yet I still managed to mess up a payment to my bank last week. And that’s because this particular institution has recently switched to online banking only. I forgot that a statement wouldn’t be posted out to remind me of my obligations.

Then I forgot to check online that a certain direct debit had been set up. And now I’m saddled with paying an interest bill on something that could so easily have been avoided. You can imagine how happy this makes me feel.

Call me inept if you like. I’d say that life gets so complicated we need simple reminders to keep us in check. That’s why I’m supporting the Keep Me Posted campaign, set up to protect consumers who wish to receive vital information such as bank statements by post.

It’s backed by pensioners’ groups, the mental health charity Mind, the National Consumer Federation and obviously, the Royal Mail. And it wants to know why relying on the post has become such as poor relation to the internet.

Post is derided as “snail mail”. Yet it is a lifeline to those who haven’t got a computer or reliable wifi access, including millions who live in rural areas. Not to mention those who are elderly and vulnerable.

Individual businesses must shoulder much of the blame for this situation. However, the trend has come from the top. In the rush to turn the world digital, politicians forget that not everyone is as switched on as they are. Not everyone sleeps with a smartphone under their pillow, or feels comfortable logging on to a public computer in a library or internet café.

When ministers and government departments urge us to apply for a new driving licence online, or pay tax bills of thousands of pounds with the tap of a few key-strokes, they forget it makes people nervous. Sympathy is the last thing we expect from officialdom, but those who make these decisions should look beyond their own computer screens. Politicians love to talk about connected societies. Yet they fail to realise that this drive towards technology creates a massive disconnect itself – between them and us.

Companies such as banks, mobile phone providers and energy suppliers have all jumped on the internet bandwagon. It makes their business lives easier, reduces the wages they have to pay and cuts operating costs. The really sickening thing though is that they are penalising customers who don’t log on.

It’s reported that energy suppliers are offering discounts of up to £300 a year for customers who sign up to online-only tariffs – with nothing in return for those who still wish to receive bills by post. And mobile phone companies are charging customers up to £2 a month for a paper statement to be sent out, as if bills aren’t expensive enough already.

According to Ripon-based entrepreneur Judith Donovan, who chairs the Keep Me Posted campaign, seven million people in Britain don’t even have access to the internet. So where does this leave them? And there are countless others, not just pensioners, who are uncomfortable using it, especially for confidential affairs. I know many people of my age and younger who feel sick at the thought of dealing with their money online. Forgotten passwords, identity theft, all cause untold stress and may leave us seriously out of pocket.

That said, I wouldn’t say an unequivocal “no” to using the internet for banking and business. It does save time. And if you know what you’re doing and remember to check your statements, ahem, it can help you to run your life more efficiently.

However, I don’t think it’s fair that others should be penalised if they choose not to or are unable to do so. And it is certainly not right that those who ask to have certain documents delivered should be forced to pay over the odds to enjoy the “privilege”.

Too often those of us who wish to make a stand on such matters are dismissed as out of touch. This is unjust. It was the same when banking experts announced they were calling time on cheque payments. No one bothered to ask those who use them. Only the other morning, I wrote two – one for the tradesmen who mended our roof and another to my son’s new school to pay for design and technology materials. I’m certainly no dinosaur. I’ll use whatever is most convenient to pay the bills. I just don’t see the logic in driving through measures that make life more difficult.

Keeping us posted is not about the desire to turn back the clock to quill and ink, as some digital evangelists would have us believe. It’s about giving people a choice. In this day and age, it’s the least we deserve.