Why don’t you …

Having recently had cause to think and talk about probate and the sorting out of someone else’s paperwork, I realise that I have very limited control or comprehension of my own paper and online subscriptions, commitments, memberships, etc.

While there was no obvious reason for me to prepare my paperwork in the event of my physical or mental absence from the world, I realised it would take me a long time to think of all the subscriptions and memberships I have, what’s being spent where and when, account numbers, passwords and what in fact I am even registered with.

It may sound a bit maudlin or an unnecessary task, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make a record and it was something I felt would be positive and useful.

I have a lot of notebooks. I love notebooks. I probably have too many. But here was an opportunity to use one of my many notebooks. I wanted spiral bound/removable pages, lined, roughly passport-sized and with enough pages for a page per company/website/bank. First positive of this exercise, I have such a variety of notebooks that I found one that fit the bill exactly.

I listed bank accounts, credit cards, utilities, rent/mortgage … fairly easy and obvious. I then thought to look on my computer at all the saved passwords. Wow. So many websites I have accounts with. I got to a point where I thought I must be near the end, having dutifully written out company names, any account or membership numbers, a hint at the password and which of my email addresses I’d registered with (I have an old email address which I usually remember to use for companies I know will only send me junk/unnecessary mail). I scrolled down the list and realised, I’m not kidding, that I wasn’t at all far through it and that it was in alphabetical order. I had just written out details for Avast (yes, I was still on A).

Some of the accounts were irrelevant, eg a restaurant I had once registered with to book a table for, but most I realise I would use again. If I had had to guess how many pages I would use up, one company per page, I would probably have guessed at 50 maximum. I have 121 pages, all accounts or services I either regularly use or use enough to warrant keeping a record of them. There would have been more than 121 had I not deleted or chosen to ignore some accounts.

Writing them out felt surprisingly empowering. Yes, that probably does sound a bit excessive but I often feel overwhelmed by the enormity of my digital footprint (even without doing a proper check for the past ten years – the one I did then would be nowhere as extensive as if I did it now and that one shocked me) and how many companies and people know far more about me than I would like to think possible.

Another positive effect of this fairly straightforward exercise is that I have logged into accounts I have subscriptions or ongoing payments to and feel prepared to either shop around for their renewal, look into what exactly I am paying for and make a more educated decision on whether I need it or not.

I know some people have spreadsheets and ways of managing and organising all outgoings. I don’t. I obviously have a rough idea and I know, for example, that I pay to keep up a few domain names.

My three-year Avast/internet security membership expires in September, a domain name I think I can lose expires in a few months and is on auto-renew, likewise a fairly comprehensive travel insurance is on auto-renew for September. The Avast, I wasn’t even sure how comprehensive the cover was. I now know it’s not very comprehensive and I feel ready to explore their upgrades and also compare prices and services for other internet security services. The domain name, I probably would have just let the company take the money (it’s not usually very much per year, less than £20) but actually I don’t need it and I don’t care if somebody else takes it. My travel insurance. I doubt I will be travelling enough to warrant such a comprehensive annual cover to renew in September so I have taken it off auto-renew and will probably stop it and take another one out when I have a trip planned. I do, after all, have a basic travel insurance cover with one of my banks.

I don’t enjoy paperwork of this kind as a rule, but, genuinely, this felt productive, useful and, as I said, unexpectedly empowering.

Another outcome, again one which I see as positive, is that my passwords are all over the place and I’d recently started using the same one for everything I now sign up to. I have thought of a way to remember passwords and am now changing all my passwords to a much more secure but slightly more logical (to me) combination. I will obviously get myself in a right tizz when I forget my new system and which accounts I have changed. And then if any do or don’t accept numbers, symbols, capital letters, etc, a consistent plan B is needed.

An even bigger positive as a result of my virtual clean-up, I have finally acknowledged that my small ISA is earning pretty much no interest in my bank’s ISA so I’m going to be a bit more adventurous and transfer it to a stocks and shares ISA. I have also started the process of finalising a will. I may perceive I have nothing to leave but for anyone who does probate for me one day, everything is significantly easier if there is a will and anything defaulting to family members I barely know would really piss me off from beyond the grave.

So out of the gloom of talking about and dealing with probate as a reality, there are positives for me, mainly around feeling on top of my online accounts and significantly more aware of what I am paying for and what of that can be shopped-around for, reduced or cancelled and I even have a better grasp of internet security.