Digitalising bank statements

ColdIron

I was quite interested in Barclays Cloud It until I found out it won't let you upload encrypted files!

Gromitt

ColdIron wrote: »

I was quite interested in Barclays Cloud It until I found out it won't let you upload encrypted files!

How does it recognise an encrypted file compared to a file type it doesn't recognise?

I keep some of my sensitive information inside other files such as pictures or sound files, I wonder how it'll process those. Without the correct software they sound and look normal.

One thing I hate is companies which state "You don't need to encrypt your files, we use military grade security."

MrWillyWonka

Stevefromdonny wrote: »

Hang on, my bank allows me to access statements online. Why bother even downloading them? Just view them "live" online and close them after you. Let your bank take care of storage and security.

True, but as someone has already pointed out, as soon as you close the account you lose all the documents - for that reason I download them and keep a copy myself.

I have found a page on HMRC which states (thanks to eskbanker for the link):

HMRC wrote:

How to keep your records
Keep your records either on paper or on computer. For electronic records you must:
capture all the information (front and back)
save information in a readable format
keep a back-up
If you've got more than one business you'll need to keep separate records for each business.
Keep detailed records. It will make it easier to answer any questions that HMRC has about your tax return.

They also state that tax records only need to be kept for one year so I'm going to keep one year of paper and shred the rest.

In addition, I am an IT professional - I'd advise against using cloud storage for security reasons, partly theft but also the host could just take your files (the T&C probably state they can do this) although using any data from the files would be illegal.

My backup solution - mirrored RAID, onsite external HDD, offsite external HDD. Probably far more redundancy than a single copy of paper!

Gromitt

MrWillyWonka wrote: »

In addition, I am an IT professional - I'd advise against using cloud storage for security reasons, partly theft but also the host could just take your files (the T&C probably state they can do this) although using any data from the files would be illegal.

I'm also an IT professional as part of my main job. I don't see any reason not to use cloud storage as long as you have taken security seriously. The files I have stored with the various providers are pretty useless unless they can figure out how the files are structured, how they are encrypted, and, once they get past that, the appropriate passwords. Just in case I'm forced to give out my passwords by a government agency, the files also have multiple passwords which open up different sets of files (not that I'm paranoid or anything...)

ColdIron

Gromitt wrote: »

How does it recognise an encrypted file compared to a file type it doesn't recognise?

I don't know the absolute reason but I imagine it has something to do with the fact that it turns everything into a pdf for presentation and failed to open the document

Gromitt

ColdIron wrote: »

I don't know the absolute reason but I imagine it has something to do with the fact that it turns everything into a pdf for presentation and failed to open the document

That could be it, I looked at the Barclays website in more detail and rather than just rejecting encrypted files, they reject everything that they don't support, so its really just for documents, and they don't support password protected documents.

Despite them saying how secure it is, I think I'd keep my documents elsewhere.