How long do you keep bank statements?

[SnowyMouse]

I'm having a paperwork sort out, how long should you keep monthly bank statements?

They’re all available on line
So I don’t keep any

I don't get paper statements anymore, mine is all online. If you have access to them online I wouldn't keep them very long.

I don't keep any.

I used to, as I worked in a bank and we charged a fortune to 're supply them.

But we had a huge purge a few years back and now most things are digital we don't bother with any of it.

*note to self to cancel statements with bank.

Waste of paper when they are all online. Print as needed. Less to securely dispose of then too.

• I have in fact already gone paperless. I've just checked.

I haven’t had a bank statement for years I went paperless as soon as it was an option .

I don't have online banking, it's not accessible to me. So how many years would you keep if you didn't have online banking?

Sign up for online banking!

And as for keeping historical. 6 months

You can always ring to request earlier

I believe the tax office advises 7 years.

I never kept them at all when I used to get paper ones.

I believe the tax office advises 7 years.

I don't think that is correct.

*in the UK

Thanks all, I'll have a think.

It certainly used to be the case duffy

I think the 7 year thing is more for businesses.

If you have to keep statements at all, I'd say 6 months should be all you'd need.

I wouldn't bother keeping any as you can request print outs from your bank. If you pay tax through your income do you really need 7 bloody years of the things???

Also look into online banking, so much easier!

7 years is for vat invoices for business. Even businesses have online banking .
Keep for 6 months if you need any you can request copies.

Why isn't online banking available to you?

It certainly used to be the case duffy

Used to be isn't now though, is it? Not much point giving advice about what used to be.

6 years. Longer for mortgage I.e. all of those statements. Don’t do online banking and prefer to have paper copies.

I would keep the last year if I couldn’t sign up for online statements. If you’re bankrupt I know my bank won’t allow OLB.

I didn’t even need to supply any bank statements when I bought my house and I don’t look at them so I shredded all mine a few years ago.

All banks have OLB these days.

You can request copies from the bank if ever you need them. So there is no reason to hold on to them at all, unless you anticipate you will need to submit them somewhere. We had to submit a year of all our personal and business account statements when I applied for indefinite leave to remain in the UK. We just went to the bank and asked for them and they printed them out. No big deal. I've never needed the paper copies for anything else.

Take a photo of it with your phone. Save on Google Drive or similar cloud location that has proper backups etc. Shred paper statement immediately.

I do this with pretty much every piece of important paper I can't switch to online.

Two reasons.

1. I fucking hate filing.
2. I often want to look at the paper when not at home.
3. DH and I can send links to them to each other to say, hey, look at that
4. I gave up scanning, I just got a big pile of things waiting to be scanned. Immediate photo with phone then auto-dump into big folder online. On the rare occassions I need to see them I scroll the images, it's fine.

I don't, when I wanted a year's worth of statements from three years ago for my impending divorce First Direct sent them to me within three days, nil charge.