I've always been told that you need to keep bank statements for a very long time, someone once said 10 years !!
Normally I've shredded/burnt them after a year.
Question is, I've old paperwork etc out and still have some old statement but now do online paperless banking
so how does that work, should I be printing the online stuff off to keep ?
Seems odd if that is the case, I've got enough pieces of scrap paperwork around as it is
First of all: This is out of date.
In the old days, people may have to keep their bank statements, usually to show as proof. Maybe if you lost your job and have to sign on at the Job Centre, they want to see proof of your savings, maybe if there are problems with your taxes, the VAT man want to see proof, and all that stuff. So we've been told to keep records of our bank statements, keep your receipt as proof of purchase, invoices, and all that.
But nowadays, what is the point? With improvements of technology and computers, banks can keep your records as far back as they can, so if you needed a bank statement as proof, you can always go to your bank and ask for a bank statement backtracked to couple of months (or how long ago is needed), or you could even do it yourself by log on to your digital banking and print out statements. I went to the job centre and show my bank statement as proof, they never said anything about it being a printed out, they accept the print out as an original anyway. As for receipts, most of the things you bought would get broken and thrown away, so why keep a receipt for that 25 years old microwave you threw away after 10 years of use because it broken down and became unsafe?
I would prefer to throw away outdated bank statements and unless receipts on ground of health and safety. There is too much papers in your home, to pose a fire risk. Fire fighters would be happy to agree and side with you over that of DWP or HMRC. Also you could argue that your home is a home, meant for living in, not meant as a old paperwork filing warehouse. Who wants to live in a living room that displays sacks of old bills and statements?
So if there comes a time when you need to use the bank statement as proof, you can always get it from the bank or print it out yourself.
I know you asked about old bank statements, but for anyone else who may have similar worries about old invoices, bills, and receipts, they can be in the same boat.
Beside, with modern technology, I should point out that a few other members who posted before me, are correct about their ideas. You can scan your old bank statements, invoices, bills, etc. Or with some smartphones and tablets like iPad, you could take photos of them. Save them as PDF files, and save to either your computer's hard drive, or save to the cloud. (I would suggest: Both your computer's hard drive
and the cloud, after all either one can fail.
Remember to back up your hard drive.)
It is your home, your stuff, so do what you want with it. As far as I know, the advice about keeping old bank statements, invoices, and receipts, are all that, just
an advice from the banks and shops. As far as I know, it is not a law saying you must keep them, just banks and shops advising you to. It had kind of became socially acceptable tradition for banks to advise customers to keep records, and yet they haven't noticed it had became pointless because of the digital age.
Oh one last thing: Some members above pointed out that banks will keep your records for 7 years, and in your case, you heard someone suggest keeping 10 years worth of bank statements. But really?? Most offices, be it DWP, HMRC, whatever, they often asked to see the most recent statements, usually
past 3 months. Because of this, I used to keep only 6 months worth of bank statements. (Not any more as I switched to paperless statements, after all I can always print out past 3 months statement.) Have any of you guys ever get asked to show bank statements dating back to the past 5 years? 7 years? 10 years? I'm sure most of you may say, "Hang on, yes, I do remember when applying for benefits (or credit card), I was asked to show past 3 months of bank statements." I don't know about the VAT people, and I'm sure in the world of business, they need past financial year (or 2), but in my experience I've usually seen DWP or other offices usually asking for past 3 months, let alone 3 years.
Anyway, your papers, your home, up to you. Shredding them is great, but please remember to have your bonfire outside not indoors.
