New Study Says Use Direct Deposit, Save a Pound of Paper

HERNDON, Va. - (allCUnews) If employees signed up to use Direct Deposit, individually they would save almost a pound of paper every year. In fact, if every employee who had access to Direct Deposit used it, we would save an additional 11 million pounds of paper, 4 million gallons of gas, and avoid releasing 32 million pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year, according to a 2009 study by PayItGreen. April has been established as PayItGreen Month to coincide with Earth Day, which is celebrated on April 22.

Electronic payments, including Direct Deposit, are simple, safe and smart ways to help the environment.

SIMPLE – Once consumers sign up for Direct Deposit, their pay is already in their bank accounts when they wake up on the morning of payday. And people who pay bills online do so in 15 minutes a month, whereas those who write out checks take two hours. (CheckFree, now part of Fiserv, 2007)

SAFE – By using electronic payments, including Direct Deposit, consumers are protecting themselves against identity theft. Almost 85 percent of identity theft is due to “offline” transactions such as stolen bills or check payments. (Javelin Strategy & Research 2006)

SMART – Direct Deposit is an easy way to start an effective savings program. People should ask their employers to automatically deposit a portion of their pay into their savings accounts each pay period and deposit the balance into their checking accounts to cover bills and expenses. Consumers will be surprised how a little money saved each month adds up when they choose to split their Direct Deposit. And they can save money paying their bills electronically. With an average of 20 bills and financial statements each month, a single household can spend up to $100 on postage each year and another $50 per year on the cost of checks, late charges and fuel. (NACHA 2008)

Visit www.payitgreen.org [1] for more information about how getting paid and paying bills electronically can help the environment. To PayItGreen, consumers just have to Assess, Ask and Act.

* Assess what bills, statements and payments they currently have that use paper;
* Ask their employers, financial institution and the companies that send them bills how to manage the bills and accounts electronically, and receive and make payments electronically;
* Act on their decisions by setting a specific deadline to turn off the paper and create a PayItGreen household.

Visit www.electronicpayments.org [2] to see the benefits of electronic payments including Direct Deposit. Employees who don’t have access to Direct Deposit can show their employers how much the company can save annually – environmentally and financially – by offering Direct Deposit.

There are calculators available on these Web sites for businesses and consumers to compute their environmental and financial savings based on their conversion to electronic bills, statements and payments instead of paper.

About PayItGreen:

PayItGreen was formed in 2007 to educate consumers about the positive environmental impact of choosing electronic bills, statements and payments over paper alternatives. Additional information about how businesses and financial institutions can get involved in PayItGreen is available at www.payitgreen.org [1].

For PayItGreen
Donna Schwartze, 314-330-3488 (Media)
donnaschwartze@kc.rr.com [3]