diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/Common.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/Common.hs
index 6a206a0c4..893c47cdb 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/Common.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/Common.hs
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ rawOptsToInputOpts day usecoloronstdout postingaccttags rawopts =
 
 handleReadFnToTextReadFn :: (InputOpts -> FilePath -> Text -> ExceptT String IO Journal) -> InputOpts -> FilePath -> Handle -> ExceptT String IO Journal
 handleReadFnToTextReadFn p iopts fp =
-  p iopts fp <=< lift . readHandlePortably
+  p iopts fp <=< lift . hGetContentsPortably Nothing
 
 -- | Get the date span from --forecast's PERIODEXPR argument, if any.
 -- This will fail with a usage error if the period expression cannot be parsed,
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/CsvReader.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/CsvReader.hs
index fa0783b02..ecb47a992 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/CsvReader.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/CsvReader.hs
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ parse :: SepFormat -> InputOpts -> FilePath -> Handle -> ExceptT String IO Journ
 parse sep iopts f h = do
   rules <- readRules $ getRulesFile f (mrules_file_ iopts)
   mencoding <- rulesEncoding rules
-  csvtext <- lift $ readHandlePortably' mencoding h
+  csvtext <- lift $ hGetContentsPortably mencoding h
   readJournalFromCsv rules f csvtext (Just sep)
   -- apply any command line account aliases. Can fail with a bad replacement pattern.
   >>= liftEither . journalApplyAliases (aliasesFromOpts iopts)
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/RulesReader.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/RulesReader.hs
index 179f8df07..c42776914 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/RulesReader.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/RulesReader.hs
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ parse iopts rulesfile h = do
     (_, Just f,  mc) -> do  -- trace "file found" $
       mencoding <- rulesEncoding rules
       liftIO $ do
-        raw <- openFileOrStdin f >>= readHandlePortably' mencoding
+        raw <- openFileOrStdin f >>= hGetContentsPortably mencoding
         maybe (return raw) (\c -> runCommandAsFilter rulesfile (dbg0Msg ("running: "++c) c) raw) mc
 
     -- no file pattern, but a data generating command
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Utils/IO.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Utils/IO.hs
index e5982053b..ff010e93f 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Utils/IO.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Utils/IO.hs
@@ -46,8 +46,7 @@ module Hledger.Utils.IO (
   readFileOrStdinPortably',
   readFileStrictly,
   readFilePortably,
-  readHandlePortably,
-  readHandlePortably',
+  hGetContentsPortably,
   -- hereFileRelative,
   inputToHandle,
 
@@ -435,7 +434,7 @@ readFileStrictly f = readFilePortably f >>= \t -> evaluate (T.length t) >> retur
 -- using the system locale's text encoding,
 -- ignoring any utf8 BOM prefix (as seen in paypal's 2018 CSV, eg) if that encoding is utf8.
 readFilePortably :: FilePath -> IO T.Text
-readFilePortably f =  openFile f ReadMode >>= readHandlePortably
+readFilePortably f = openFile f ReadMode >>= hGetContentsPortably Nothing
 
 -- | Like readFilePortably, but read from standard input if the path is "-".
 readFileOrStdinPortably :: String -> IO T.Text
@@ -443,7 +442,7 @@ readFileOrStdinPortably = readFileOrStdinPortably' Nothing
 
 -- | Like readFileOrStdinPortably, but take an optional converter.
 readFileOrStdinPortably' :: Maybe DynEncoding -> String -> IO T.Text
-readFileOrStdinPortably' c f = openFileOrStdin f >>= readHandlePortably' c
+readFileOrStdinPortably' c f = openFileOrStdin f >>= hGetContentsPortably c
 
 -- | Open a file for reading, using the standard System.IO.openFile.
 -- This opens the handle in text mode, using the initial system locale's text encoding.
@@ -451,22 +450,18 @@ openFileOrStdin :: String -> IO Handle
 openFileOrStdin "-" = return stdin
 openFileOrStdin f' = openFile f' ReadMode
 
--- readHandlePortably' with no text encoding specified.
-readHandlePortably :: Handle -> IO T.Text
-readHandlePortably = readHandlePortably' Nothing
-
--- | Read text from a handle with a specified encoding, using the encoding package.
--- Or if no encoding is specified, it uses the handle's current encoding,
--- after first changing it to UTF-8BOM if it was UTF-8, to allow a Byte Order Mark at the start.
+-- | Read text from a handle, perhaps using a specified encoding from the encoding package.
+-- Or if no encoding is specified, using the handle's current encoding,
+-- changing it to UTF-8BOM if it was UTF-8, to ignore any Byte Order Mark at the start.
 -- Also it converts Windows line endings to newlines.
 -- If decoding fails, this throws an IOException (or possibly a UnicodeException or something else from the encoding package).
-readHandlePortably' :: Maybe DynEncoding -> Handle -> IO T.Text
-readHandlePortably' Nothing h = do
+hGetContentsPortably :: Maybe DynEncoding -> Handle -> IO T.Text
+hGetContentsPortably Nothing h = do
   hSetNewlineMode h universalNewlineMode
   menc <- hGetEncoding h
   when (fmap show menc == Just "UTF-8") $ hSetEncoding h utf8_bom
   T.hGetContents h
-readHandlePortably' (Just e) h =
+hGetContentsPortably (Just e) h =
   -- convert newlines manually, because Enc.hGetContents uses bytestring's hGetContents
   T.replace "\r\n" "\n" . T.pack <$> let ?enc = e in Enc.hGetContents h