Habits are hard to break. After 5, 10, 20 or more years of receiving paper statements, most mainstream banking and credit card users are reluctant to give them up.

Long-term online statement and transaction archives are key to creating paperless customers. But you'll still need an incentive to get most customers to move their mouse over to the "go paperless" button.

Chase Bank devotes prime homepage real estate, and $35,000 in prize money, to the effort today in a sweepstakes aimed at convincing customers to shut off their paper statements (see screenshot below). Every customer enrolled in electronic statements receives one entry per month through April in the contest which pays a $25,000 grand prize plus ten $1,000 runner-up prizes. 

Analysis
It's a good effort, but with $100 million or more in annual savings at stake, why stop the sweepstakes after just three months. A $1,000 prize should be awarded each month, or each week, for many years as the banking giant weans its customer base off paper.

Also, Chase should be more specific on the amount of statement storage available online. The landing page is vague, saying one can "gain access to several years of statements." What does "gain access" mean? Do you have to request old statements for future delivery or are they right there so that on April 14th, you can find that final piece of your tax return puzzle. Even checking the online banking area of the website won't answer that question. It merely says you can print 90 days' worth of transactions. This isn't enough reassurance to those reluctant to give up the paper trail.

Chase homepage (14 Feb 2006):

Sweepstakes landing page (14 Feb. 2006):