How long should I keep my bank/credit card statements for (frequent changer)?

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

Sorry if this question comes up quite often...

But I'm having a bit of a clear out and trying hard to confront my hoarding instincts I've got a lot of old bank and credit card statements, some going back even more than ten years! How many can I safely get rid of? There are lots from different banks/CC providers because I frequently change bank, and I've done a lot of balance transferring and tarting it he past.

I'd like to get rid of as many as possible. I've checked them all for things like PPI and there's definitely nothing like that on any of them. It's all pretty straight forward stuff. I plan to keep any CC statements which show major big purchases from the last few years. And I'll keep all confirmations of account and card closures.

Aside from that, what can I safely get rid of?

And it might be handy to put the same questions to payslips, as I'll tackle them in the morning too.

Many thanks

Max

clivep

I now shred everything over 6 years old. I think that's what HMRC can normally query about self assessments so seems a reasonable timescale.

Tunstallstoven

Thanks clivep.

I had heard various references to what HMRC might require. But is that just relevant to people who are self employed? Or can ANYONE be "audited" (if that's the right word)?

Don80

Hi

They used to say keep 6 years, but whether you need that, I'm not sure. For closed bank accounts, maybe just keep the annual tax/interest notification (I can't remember what it's called, but they send one every year) just in case?

Payslips, again for old years your P60 should be okay as it shows your annual earnings and tax paid. Unless you are planning something like a mortgage any time soon, in which case check in case they need to see a history, though I would suspect that would be no more than a year?

Almost all of mine are online, so for "live accounts" I could just download these as and when I need them.

ah23

Why not go paperless moving forward?

Tunstallstoven

Thanks for the replies.

@ah23 - yes, that's what I'm doing now. I've been referring to old statements...

Tunstallstoven

Seagull27 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

@ah23 - yes, that's what I'm doing now. I've been referring to old statements...

Hmmm... Or maybe I should reconsider. But I'll start a new post regarding that...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/73521357#Comment_73521357