Bank Statements of the last 5 years

938475983459

Hi all

I am moving flat soon. I have several bags full of documents. Banks statements, credit card statements, council tax bills, water bills, telephone bills, electricity and gas bills, etc. etc. Nearly ten years of documents (its not hoarding. is it?

To be honest I do not need most of them. But one day I will be applying for a mortgage. I am not sure what documents are required for the getting a mortgage. Other than the mortgage I dont think I need to prove my previous addresses anywhere else.

My new flat is not very big so I would like to get rid of anything that I do not need.

Any suggestions?

Cheers!

Thrugelmir

I would destroy the utility bills . Any paperwork that has a bearing on your personal financial affairs, i.e. bank statements, at least 6 years.

ValHaller

Thrugelmir wrote: »

I would destroy the utility bills

I would keep utility bills as well for the 6 years - as given by the limitation for Statute Barring. It is amazing the number of people elsewhere on the site who are chased for utilities from houses they used to live at.

Sort the paper work into document wallets for each tax year and throw it out when it reaches 7 years old.

[Deleted User]

I was in a similar predicament - I bought myself a scanner with a document feeder, shoved it all through, saved it as searchable PDFs, and shredded the lot. Simple.

Now I've got 1.2GB of scanned paperwork, all encrypted on a USB stick on my keyring.

amnblog

scan the lot, then shred it

Yorkie1

I would definitely keep the last year's worth of bills in paper copy - some lenders want paper copies and it's a nightmare to get copies (sometimes not even possible).

Scan or retain as paper the rest.