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Pros and cons of digital receipts

By Dana Fowle
Published  December 21, 2016 10:00am EST
News
FOX 5 Atlanta

ATLANTA - If you’re doing a lot of holiday shopping right now, then receipts are piling up. And they’re easy to lose. Maybe it’s time to consider digital receipts.

Certainly the trend from paper to digital is something you see more folks doing.  It’s convenient for you and it saves the company money, too.

That picture of a pile of receipts you see? Confession: Those are mine from holiday shopping.  I know I will need to return a few things, so I have to keep track of these. Of course, many of you are in the same boat.

We talked to shopper Karen Needle at Kohl’s. Her husband prefers digital receipts.  She wants to make the switch but hasn’t yet.

“It’s easier to...look up the email, and if you have to return something, or, you know, need it for anything, it’s a lot easier to have it right there. I have a stack of receipts this thick, so yeah, it would be a lot easier to do it online,” she told Fox 5.

I’m the same way. I get some of my receipts digitally, but I haven’t completely made the switch yet.  So let’s look at those pros and cons.

PROS: Digital Receipts

  • The receipt is stored in your email. No more paper.
  • Now you're less likely to lose it. 
  • The retailer can also send you special offers. 

CONS : Digital Receipts

  • The retailer has your email address, so you can expect extra junk mail.
  • Retailers sell information to third parties.
  • Digital receipts can get caught in spam filters. 

Worried that my inbox would get clogged, a few years ago I opened separate email accounts: one for personal mail, one for bills and one for work.  But, I also open an email address for shopping only. That way if scammers, through unwanted emails get in there, they don't have access to my personal info that you might find in my other email addresses.

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