Santander has announced plans to scrap its annual paper fee statements for millions of customers.
Millions of Santander customers will no longer receive an annual breakdown of the banking fees they’ve paid after the high street giant confirmed it is scrapping the long-running paper statement.
From August, the bank will stop sending out its yearly Statement of Fees, which gives customers a summary of charges paid over the previous 12 months.
Instead, customers wanting to check how much they’ve paid in fees will have to log into Santander’s online or mobile banking services.
The annual statement currently provides a single breakdown of charges, such as overdraft interest or fees for using a debit card abroad, as reported by creatorzine.com.
Santander said customers will still be able to access the same information digitally “anytime, wherever you are”, but it will no longer arrive automatically through the post.
The move is part of the bank’s continued push towards digital banking and paper-free services.
Santander said customers can continue to view account charges through its online and mobile banking platforms, while fee information for individual accounts will also remain available through each account’s Fee Information Document.
The bank says 9.2 million customers have already switched to paper-free banking.
On its website, Santander says: “Going paper-free means that you’ll get your statements and other important notices online and not by post.
“We have 9.2 million Santander customers who are paper-free and are seeing the benefits.”
Customers who choose paper-free banking receive an email whenever a new statement or document is available to view.
Documents remain accessible online for up to seven years, and can be downloaded or printed if required.
The change comes as banks continue shifting more everyday services online, with customers increasingly encouraged to manage their accounts through banking apps rather than paper correspondence.
Anyone wanting to keep track of their annual banking costs will now need to check their fees through Santander’s online or mobile banking instead of waiting for a yearly paper statement to arrive.