Is it just me who doesn't get them any more? Mine seem to have stopped back in June; no idea why and haven't seen anything to say they were going to stop sending them out. And no I haven't ticked any boxes to say I don't want them any more. I like my paper copies!

So many tons of paper are used for invoicing to millions of customers in companies in every country so I am very happy that companies are moving away from paper invoicing where it isn't needed. If you need to have something on paper, download and print it.

You can always log in to your account and download your statements then print them out, punch holes in them, put them in a file, and thumb through them on winter evenings when there's not much on TV.

But if they stopped sending statements back in June, you haven't really missed them, have you??

Postfinance introduced its new banking packages "Smart" and "Smart Plus" in the middle of last year, which has a "paper option, which costs CHF 5/month". There was a notice in the Postfinance ebanking to select one or the other of the banking packages (or otherwise they would assign one). Presumably the "paper option" was not pre-selected but needed to be selected specifically.

Well, thing is I don't use postfinance ebanking so no account and no way to download statements and other stuff.

And I was already being charged a franc to have paper copies as well as 5 francs bank charges.

I didn't really miss them until I started updating my spreadsheets a while back (yeah, I'm bad at doing it monthly) and realised I hadn't had any postfinance ones. I don't spend money out of the account very often (only to buy stamps occasionally) so it being slightly out of wack on my spreadsheets isn't a problem. But I'm wondering what's going to happen with the statements they usually send for the tax forms? I usually get an end of year statement, but now - will that still happen or not?

Your monthly statements should be available on the website. Login and check. Tax details should be there as well.

And they also sent paper communication about the changes

You can export all your balances and transactions from eFinance in CSV format, it's exactly meant to be imported in spreadsheets.

What you are used to is a system where the bank is digital, you are working digitally, and the data is transmitted by paper with people manually re-entering the numbers. This model is being abandoned everywhere, and with good reasons. You must either get used to eFinance or activate the option to get the paper statements, at your costs.
I apologize if I sound rude, I just want to highlight that this issue is to be expected in other sectors as well, e.g. communication with health insurances, tax authorities and so on.

Nothing new really.
Brother Bob sang about it years ago
https://youtu.be/90WD_ats6eE

Okay, got a postfinance card reader - how do I use it? Does it work with my postfinance debit card or do I need another one? And, if so, how do I get one? Have to make yet another account on e-finance to obtain one? The card reader arrived with no instructions, just a letter saying how to depose of it when no longer needed.

https://www.postfinance.ch/en/privat...rd-reader.html

No, venetian, you don't sound rude, not at all. You've provided some helpful background to the change that is happening increasingly (often irrespective of customer and staff wishes or where paper, if still available, comes only at a fee or with a delay). The shift is just the reality.

Recently I had to phone an office and the very helpful clerk, whose age I'd estimate about 30, said that their IT was so poor that she had to look up the information she needed to answer my query in three different systems, such that it made her yearn for what her mother had told her about, when each customer had had a carboard file, in a filing-cabinet.

Okay, finally got it all organised and downloaded all the missing statements. And oh look, another surprise! Now being charged for sending them some payment slips to process instead of doing it online. At least I assume that's what the CHF3 is for on the monthly statements since that's all I do with the account mostly. 3 slips at a franc each.

So now I get charged 5 francs a month for what exactly since I no longer get paper copies (Smart package), plus 3 francs for processing payment slips sent to them. Really "Smart".

For keeping your money and giving you a website to see it I'm also disappointed but that's a recent tendency. It was even said somewhere that all "small" accounts are a net loss for banks and they would rather not have them at all...

There was another thread on EF last year about the change and possible cheaper alternatives, I decided to stay with PF but now they even removed the eCockpit... (it was a nice interface that could automatically divide your expenses into categories and help you manage your budgets). We'll see.

If you pay for the "paper option" you get the monthly statements and processing payment slips is included. https://www.postfinance.ch/en/privat...or-adults.html

And don't you love PostFinance. How to unblock a card - log in to your account and you can block or unblock a card. Duh? Can't log in because the darn card is blocked you idiots!

I'm guessing you didn't activate the fingerprint or face scan option?

Use the card reader since I don't have a phone.

If you are locked out when attempting to access online banking the PostFinance give you one more attempt at the ATM. Otherwise you can call them to unblock. The 4th attempt at ATM was fine for me.

I called PostFinance's support and they did unblock the card, but turned out it only happened at their end. I still couldn't use the card in the card reader. So I called again and they said it was unblocked and to go to a PostFinance ATM, insert the card and use the correct PIN for it which has unblocked it.

Interesting thing when I did call them is that they use voice recognition on their calls. You can tell them if you don't want that done, but I didn't bother and the second time I called he told me that the voice recognition matched. Another little security feature I've not come across anywhere else.