How long do you keep your statements, and why ?q

morganlefay

I am an extreme hoarder, but have decided to shred a lot of old paperwork from my home 'office'. How long should I keep my credit card statements, I have stacks of them going back years and would like to chuck all but the past six months. Is this wise ? How long do other ( tidy) people keep them for ?

Gordon_Hose

I, personally, wouldn't keep anything over 1 year at the very most.

I use paperless billing so if I need a statement I can print it off.

PlutoinCapricorn

I download copies and save them in a disk file. I have never needed to go back to them, but it makes me feel secure. I also check the amounts every month.

Tixy

I had all statements/bills going back around 14 years until recently. When having a clearout I burned the really old stuff and now have a little over 6years.

I personally want to keep at least 6years worth (6 due to the Limitation Act). I'd be prepared to store them on disk somewhere rather than in paper, I just don't need to as I am not short of space.
I wouldn't want to store them just online as once an account is closed you generally lose access to the online statements (I know it would still be possible to obtain copies from the bank for the last 6years but its easy to just keep the statements).

yasmup

morganlefay wrote: »

I am an extreme hoarder, but have decided to shred a lot of old paperwork from my home 'office'. How long should I keep my credit card statements, I have stacks of them going back years and would like to chuck all but the past six months. Is this wise ? How long do other ( tidy) people keep them for ?

With credit card companies typically charging about £10 per duplicate/copy statements, shredding old statements is like shredding £10 notes :eek:

Not many credit card companies allow you access to more than say the last 12 months statements online, so that's not an alternative either.

But storing them yourself electronically is a possible alternative if you wish to reduce clutter

How long to store for? Well usual advice is 6-7 years (a year less in Scotland). - Statute of Limitations Act and all that.

But with recent mis-selling scandals such as PPI and CPP, who knows what other skeletons could come out the cupboards. There's no time limit to how far back you can make these type of claims .... and most card providers will not keep the records more than about 6-7 years either, so if you don't have your own records, you may never be able to obtain the evidence when you need it.

planteria

forever. i have every 1 i've ever received, or printed (Egg and Cahoot).

Vortigern

I tend to keep paper too long, but I'm now moving to downloadable PDF statements. I keep them as proof of major purchases, and to answer questions like "when did we last go to Turkey, and how much did we spend there?"

SailorSam

I'm a hoarder i have them going back years. Now that i've gone paperless i think it says on the banks website they keep things for 7yrs.

[Deleted User]

I've got all mine since I got my first Access card about 35 years ago, including the transaction slips. I also keep gas, electricity, phone, water, rates, council tax, bank statements, cheque book stubs, & Tesco till receipts.

The gas & electricity came in handy recently when I put all my fuel use through a spreadsheet going back decades. Same with the Tesco receipts when I put my diet through a spreadsheet. They all get used at the end of each year when I do my accounts. Sometimes I spend a few moments flipping through old chequebooks just out of curiosity to see what I was spending my money on decades ago. That's a bit like looking through an old diary.

leeroy2009

have far to many accounts, current credit savings etc to have countless statements dropping through the letter box, not to mention having to store them then safely dispose of them, that's why I have paperless for everything, im 100% fully online with all my accounts.

scottishblondie

6 years. I'm paperless for most things now, so I download monthly and store digitally, but I also have a few folders full of paper statements.