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Original poster

how long do you keep household bills

14 replies

mum2oneloudbaby · 23/08/2008 10:50

i have just filed all our recent bills and it is getting ridiculous i can hardly get in the filing drawer.

dh is a hoarder and insists that we keep all the bills but we've got them going back 8 years is this really necessary?

how long do you keep gas, elec, tel. water bills, credit card, bank statements etc.?

OP posts:
SlartyBartFast · 23/08/2008 10:52

lately i hve been keeping for 6 months - shredding with abandon.
my dh is a hoarder also but i dont tell him

CarGirl · 23/08/2008 10:52

Can you not put all the older ones in a ring file and stick it in the loft/garage/shed? Will keep him happy for a bit and gets them out the filing ccabinet.

Or have you got a scanner? Scan them and store them on your PC?

SlartyBartFast · 23/08/2008 10:53

i must admit to keepign wage slips, for remininscing, or something!

notcitrus · 23/08/2008 17:09

Bills - 3 years for most of them, plus any that got disputed, and a representative one from everywhere I've lived in case I ever need to prove that.
Payslips - last few years, plus P60s forever.

Credit cards and bank statements - forever, so far! I like the idea that I can tell what I was doing in a given week from the age of 14...
Old savings accounts that I've closed and stuff, just the last statement.

But do I need every annual statement from pension providers? MrNC has about nine different pensions and they all love writing to him (but have completely failed to ever merge any together, so he's given up on that).

Original poster
mum2oneloudbaby · 24/08/2008 18:47

why is it it always seems to be the males who are the hoarders of endless paperwork?

I like the idea of putting them on the pc however that could take an age and then the pc probably wouldn't work as it is so old and cranky

OP posts:
sagacious · 24/08/2008 18:50

utilities I keep for a year
dh's payslips are all kept (nostalgic value )
credit cards 2 years

Bank online and am paperfree so thats all really

Judy1234 · 24/08/2008 19:38

For tax reasons you need the bank statements for at least 6 years sometimes longer. If your filing cabinet is full and you are fed up and it's your husband wanting them all filed the simple answer is have nothing to do with it and leave it to him to file it all. Also for VAT if either of you charge it you need to keep records on paper - on line is usually not good enough.

notcitrus · 24/08/2008 22:12

MrNC is severely dyslexic so I do all the paperwork in this house - I've just about got rid of the backlog from before I moved in with him and all the stuff his parents have recently dumped on us! Fortunately he's usually amenable to my telling him that stuff can be safely thrown out.

I've known people recently have problems getting printed-off online bills/statements accepted as proof of funds/address/whatever, so I'm still getting most of them on paper. Besides my print cartridges are quite expensive, so might as well get the firms to print them instead.

MrVibrating · 25/08/2008 00:31

You don't need to keep household bills, or bank statements, at all.

Business records are a different matter.

Having said that, I have personal stuff that goes back 20 years...

jura · 25/08/2008 12:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SlartyBartFast · 25/08/2008 12:36

oops, you mean i have been too eager in my shredding? 6 months max?..... oh dear

i can now see that perhaps i should have kept utility bills, compare and contrast... but other than that,
dont like looking at bank statements at the best of times

blueshoes · 25/08/2008 13:23

I shred them once the file gets full.

It is handy to keep bills for at least 1 year. I do an annual review of past year's utility bills so I know how much dh and I need to budget over the year for household bills and adjust the monthly standing order payments to the joint household account accordingly.

That way, even though an MOT/car insurance or life insurance premium only comes round once a year or water is billed quarterly or school fees termly, a little is set aside every month for until it hits.

Original poster
mum2oneloudbaby · 25/08/2008 18:37

blueshoes that is soooooo organised. i feel slightly at my lack of organisation!

OP posts:
Eddas · 25/08/2008 19:01

I keep two years worth of personal stuff. No need for anymore tbh. Although I say that but there's normally more since I don't sort it very often

Businesses are different. They need to keep 6 years plus the current year. If you're a farmer best off keeping everything forever, something to do with farmers averaging but that's probably too much information

Banks are able to produce back statements if you really needed them, as would other places i'd imagine. But in reality there's unlikely to be a time you'd need them

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