How long do you keep financial records?

electric_lemon

When do you shred the financial records for utility bills, mortgage payments etc, is three years worth enough or too much?
:j

Mark7799

Keep them for six years

rainbowstar

Hiya!

I would say 6 years as well I think...

While on the subject...any tips on storing financial records, bills etc?
I have credit cards, loans, catalogues plus household bills so the paperwork sure mounts up!

At the moment, I've got each company in a different box file/folder but I'm going to end up with loads of folders! (And nowhere to put them!)

What do other moneysavers do?

Thanks in advance!

Jonbvn

6 years is a good idea, since this is as far back as HMRC can go when making any claims etc.

Since a lot of data arrives electronically, this is how I store it aswell. Make sure you backup any data on another hard drive and/or on the services available on the net.

Pennywise

Remember to keep important paperwork for virtually ever and a day.

Routine bills, like food, clothes, small household items, gifts, utilities, etc are unlikely to be needed again after 6 years.

BUT, you really should keep hold of anything important. Things like the paperwork for buying or selling your house, tenancy agreements for property you have rented, bills for home improvements or extensions, bills for central heating, double glazing, kitchen appliances, TV, DVD recorder, camcorder, etc.

We have no end of trouble when people come to sell a house and they've thrown away important paperwork from 10/20 years ago for the original purchase and the improvements. When they come to sell, if they have since moved out and rented out their property, we have to do detailed capital gains tax computations for which we need to know (and provide proof) of the costs incurred in buying and improving. A lot of people lose out because they didn't think beyond the usual six year rule. In the case of selling a house, the six year rule starts from when you sell it, not from when you bought it!!!

Also useful to keep receipts for the expensive household items, or expensive gifts, jewellery, etc., to support an insurance claim if things go wrong - again the six year rule is dangerous to adopt here as if you are wanting to claim for above average possessions, the insurers will want proof of your spending and ownership of the big items.

missyg_3

Rainbowstar - I keep stuff for the current year in a concertina file so that I can access it easily, with each company's paperwork separated in one of those small transparent plastic wallets.

At the end of the year (I do it by tax year), I transfer it into a box file and start again, so I end up with one box file per year. Older stuff can then be stored away.

Stephen_Leak

I concur with the above note about keeping really long-term stuff, but the OP was about utility bills, etc.

Again, I keep 6 years, plus the current year's ongoing collection. To keep it simple, I have my "cull" as one of my New Year tasks, and have just shredded 2001.

PS. For storage, I seem to have settled on three cheap box files. One is for current stuff - utility bills, my current credit card statements and payslips from my current job. One is for old stuff - old credit card statements and payslips from previous jobs. The last one is for my really long-term stuff - mainly the car's records and maintenance receipts.

Lucia_D

I've had to deal with an insurance claim following a car accident I was injured in. The solicitors needed every piece of paperwork under the sun, from every bank statement of every account to proof of cheques sent to people, salary slips along with endless dates and times going back well over 4 years now. My advice is to keep everything apart from utility bills, these are about the only thing they haven't asked me for - but it may yet happen!

white.wizard

Hi you all,

I think it's a good idea to keep your financial records for long time.
I saw that most of you agreed to 6 years. For most of us is long enough I guess.

It would be a good idea to save your recods on some software aplications, starting with Microsoft Excell till more complex aplications like Quicken or something which is suitable for you.

These software solution can give you a lot of interesting information like: charts, monthly/yearly statistics.

Stephen_Leak

Lucia_D wrote: »

I've had to deal with an insurance claim following a car accident I was injured in. The solicitors needed every piece of paperwork under the sun, from every bank statement of every account to proof of cheques sent to people, salary slips along with endless dates and times going back well over 4 years now. My advice is to keep everything apart from utility bills, these are about the only thing they haven't asked me for - but it may yet happen!

They may have just been making you "jump through hoops". At BT, an old (b*st*rd of a) boss used to love doing this to people claiming under the Customer Service Guarantee Scheme, even when their claim clearly met the criteria.

olly300

Atomised wrote: »

I don't have a mortgage but have kept every bank statemen I have ever been sent since I was 14:o
I am not sure if this is paranoia or common sense. Or just pointless:D

A mixture of all 3.

I don't keep bank statements longer than 6 years simply because I don't have direct debits or any other payments that still come out from 6 years ago.

If I did I would keep them mainly because I've had disputes with people/companies in the past and the fact I keep paperwork (sometimes very random bits of paper) means that the disputes have been settled in my favour.