Bank statements how long

You might not realize how much information is present on your old bills, statements, voided and canceled checks and other financial documents. Your best option is to shred any documents that contain sensitive information before tossing them. Either invest in a shredder for your home or utilize a professional shredding service. Many cities also hold free paper shredding days for residents.

A financial life necessarily involves a significant amount of documentation—from monthly bank statements to insurance documents to the various materials required to file your taxes. Kevin Payne is a personal finance and travel writer who writes about credit cards, student loans, debt, credit, and family finances. Kevin lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife and four kids.

Select Region. United States. United Kingdom. Kevin Payne. Editorial Note: Forbes Advisor may earn a commission on sales made from partner links on this page, but that doesn't affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. One Year Documents that fall into this category include non-tax-related bank and credit card statements, investment statements, pay stubs and receipts for large purchases. How to Store Financial Documents You can cut down on clutter by creating a reliable system for storing your financial documents.

Paper Storage Many people choose to keep documents stored in a filing cabinet. The past several years have seen an explosion of cloud-based solutions, including: Dropbox Google Drive Microsoft OneDrive iCloud Amazon Cloud Drive Box NextCloud iDrive Carbonite Using cloud-based storage not only saves on space, but also can be great for organizing and keeping your documents secure, since most services guarantee protection through encrypted networks. Was this article helpful?

Share your feedback. Send feedback to the editorial team. Rate this Article. Thank You for your feedback! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Financial Apps. Identity Theft. More from. Information provided on Forbes Advisor is for educational purposes only. Your financial situation is unique and the products and services we review may not be right for your circumstances. We do not offer financial advice, advisory or brokerage services, nor do we recommend or advise individuals or to buy or sell particular stocks or securities.

Performance information may have changed since the time of publication. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Hang on to any relevant statements until the issue is fully resolved. Other documents related to your bank, credit card and investment accounts abound. Here are a few types and how long to consider saving them:. It's possible to access past statements without keeping copies yourself, but you may choose to keep your own statements on file anyway.

Your financial institution stores information in their system for multiple years, and may be able to provide you with copies of older statements on request. You can also request past copies of the statements you normally receive by mail, sometimes for a fee, by contacting your bank or card company. The length of time your financial institution will store these records—and make them available to you—varies, so it's a good idea to do a little research on your bank's policy.

Some card companies only provide online statements for the previous 12 months, for example; you may have to do extra legwork or pay for missing statements and wait a few days or weeks to get anything beyond that. Some banks, including Wells Fargo, retain account statements for up to seven years on checking, deposit, home mortgage, trust and managed investment accounts. At other financial institutions, five years is the norm. If you've used your financial statements to back up information on your tax returns, you may want to keep your own paper or digital copies, rather than relying on the bank to do it.

That way, you can ensure that you have these documents on hand for a full seven years. And at any time, you'll be able to access and refer to this information without having to track it down online.

When you no longer need your documents, be sure to shred the paper files and completely delete the electronic copies including any backups. Free software for Windows and Mac computers can help make sure these files can't later be recovered by someone up to no good. Maintaining a Paper Trail The bank and credit card statements you receive provide concise and comprehensive information about what's happening with your accounts.

It can also be key supporting documentation to prove yourself if your finances are ever called into question. Reviewing statements can help you spot fraud and other irregularities, such as an unusually high bill. And maintain files securely for at least seven years if you've used your statements to support information you've included in your tax return. Need to Pay Down Debt? A debt consolidation loan might be the best way to pay off high interest debt.

Sign up for FREE and find a personalized loan offer. The purpose of this question submission tool is to provide general education on credit reporting. The Ask Experian team cannot respond to each question individually. However, if your question is of interest to a wide audience of consumers, the Experian team may include it in a future post and may also share responses in its social media outreach. If you have a question, others likely have the same question, too.

By sharing your questions and our answers, we can help others as well. Personal credit report disputes cannot be submitted through Ask Experian. For physical documents, designate a safe, out-of-the-way place in your home to store all paper records that protects them from damage or theft.

For digital records, be sure to archive and back up all electronic records. Use complex passwords to keep your account information safe. Make sure your username and password combination is different from the ones you use for personal email, online merchants and social media accounts. Protecting your computer with antivirus software is also a good idea. Invest in a cross-cut shredder that will eliminate all traces of your personal information, or search for free shredding events in your community.

Having paperless statements and documents can help reduce the risk of identity theft posed by lost or stolen mail. The material provided on this website is for informational use only and is not intended for financial, tax or investment advice.

Please also note that such material is not updated regularly and that some of the information may not therefore be current. Consult with your own financial professional and tax advisor when making decisions regarding your financial situation.

We're here to help. Reach out by visiting our Contact page or schedule an appointment today. We strive to provide you with information about products and services you might find interesting and useful.

Relationship-based ads and online behavioral advertising help us do that. Here's how it works: We gather information about your online activities, such as the searches you conduct on our Sites and the pages you visit. This information may be used to deliver advertising on our Sites and offline for example, by phone, email and direct mail that's customized to meet specific interests you may have.

If you prefer that we do not use this information, you may opt out of online behavioral advertising. If you opt out, though, you may still receive generic advertising. Also, if you opt out of online behavioral advertising, you may still see ads when you sign in to your account, for example through Online Banking or MyMerrill. These ads are based on your specific account relationships with us. To learn more about relationship-based ads, online behavioral advertising and our privacy practices, please review the Bank of America Online Privacy Notice and our Online Privacy FAQs.

You're continuing to another website that Bank of America doesn't own or operate. Its owner is solely responsible for the website's content, offerings and level of security, so please refer to the website's posted privacy policy and terms of use. It's possible that the information provided in the website is available only in English.