We all get far too much mail, especially from financial services companies.\u00a0 Credit card companies alone send billions of pieces of paper mail each year, and most of that gets thrown right into the trash can.\u00a0 Not only does this dynamic pose a threat from a fraud perspective \u2013 trash cans and mailboxes can be treasure troves for opportunistic fraudsters \u2013 but you have to figure the effect on the environment isn\u2019t great either.\u00a0Paper products aren\u2019t as bad as most materials, according to North Carolina State University Professor Richard Venditti, because they\u2019re renewable, recyclable and biodegradable and they motivate land owners to plant trees.\u00a0 However, Venditti says, \u201cinefficient use of paper does consume resources and have an impact on the environment.\u201d\u00a0While credit card direct mail is on the rise after hitting a two-year low in April 2012, long-term trends suggest a declining role for traditional paper mail in the years to come.\u00a0 Not only are financial services companies increasingly offering paperless options to their account holders \u2013 even charging extra for paper statements, but they\u2019re also learning how to better leverage digital means for marketing purposes.\u00a0 These changes are largely based on the shifting preferences of the modern consumer as well as the overall technicalization of modern commerce \u2013 not some newfound corporate altruism \u2013 but does it really matter?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-25126","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n