[patio11]

Neither banks nor the IRS use email for that. You know who does? Rackspace, which sent me a pair of emails recently informing me of tickets they had opened which I should probably look at. It turns out if you don't respond to an Acceptable Use Policy violation they'll turn off your servers and close your account.

They sent one reminder, which I also missed. By happiest of coincidences, I logged into their ticketing system to look up a Linux command a support rep had taught me once, and saw the tickets.

(The AUP violation was a server getting hacked, probably via a WordPress blog, and being used to attack SSH on other servers. I nearly had a heart attack, until I realized "Hey wait, that is not actually an IP I own." Turns out they had the wrong account. "Sorry about the mistake!" I don't think that would have cut it, honestly, if they had actually gone through on the deactivation threat.)

[jhandl]

Banks do use email for that and for everything else if you told them to do so because you care for the environment.

[patio11]

You will find that that is not actually true. You cannot opt to get certain communications via email, partly due to regulations and partly due to banks actually wanting people to read certain high-value communications. One type of many is the FCRA notification of adverse action taken in response to pulling a credit report.

[jhandl]

Good to know. Luckily I haven't had the opportunity to find out.