Is saving credit card statements worth it? How should it be saved? (insurance, company)

[Threestep2]

They can be handy when it comes to warranty claims or when it comes to selling a home.

[beachmouse]

Skim and shred for me. For big ticket extended warranty stuff, I save those original receipts.

[Stripes17]

I keep credit card statements for one year. Once a year, I go through my finance files and shred anything that's a year or more old.

Of course that excludes any of my retirement or investment accounts, as well as tax documents. They are retained longer.

[Lowexpectations]

I haven’t ever had a need for a credit card statement that was more than a year old. I just lean on the online services capability

[Submariner]

We itemize our income tax filings. We have done so for over 35 years.

It used to mean that we had to keep a wide array of receipts for our records. In the last 10 years, it has gotten much easier, as we have shifted to using CCs for most of our spending. As that portion of our annual spending is now documented on 12 monthly statements.

We keep documentation for as many years as it might be possible to need it for an audit.

[phantompilot]

Someone says its all online - but it isn't ..not really. Most providers only make 1-2 years available online...like my experience is mostly with Citibank, which I know goes back less than two years. If you wanted prior to that you have to order them, and there's a cutoff for that as well. I think you might be able to get 2-3 years. If it was 3+ years ago its like it didn't happen - I had one provider told me that was all they provided unless it was subpoenaed by the government in which case they'd go to some lengths to retrieve it (basically they don't give much of a crap that its helpful to customers, but if its required by law or useful to the provider, they keep it internally, probably forever).


So if you are worried you might ever need to go back more than a year..I'd say save everything. Just as a matter of policy. Then you don't have to worry that you have a crappy provider that isn't helpful with older data.

[ss20ts]

Originally Posted by gleamingobscenereader

Is it worth it to save credit card statements?

How should the statements be saved? As in, just printed? Save it on flash drive? Any other forms?

Nope. I only keep them if there's a problem. I put all bills in a bin and burn them all. They make great firestarters in my summer/autumn bonfires.

[otowi]

I don't save them anymore. They're available online from my provider and they also send an annual whole-year statement of all activity on the card - that one I do print out and go through to analyze my spending and to make sure I find all my donations for tax deduction purposes, etc.

[CGab]

Can’t you go back online and pull statements? I don’t print any of them anymore! I can log on to my account online and go back I think 5 years and look at statements. Even if you can only go back s year or less you can save it monthly to a PDF file. Saves me from shredding documents! I can’t even remember the last time I had a statement mailed!

[Ultrarunner]

I had an audit to establish improvement made on a rental property... they looked back 7 years.

I had cancelled checks, receipts, credit card statements and warranties... the auditor spent about 10 minutes and said I think we are done...

I did a lot to the home... the roof alone was 23k... plus foundation, siding, deck, driveway...

It really taught me the value of keeping good records.

As mentions... it really doesn't take much to store... I have a giveaway metal 4 drawer file cabinet in the garage and only two drawers are full... your mileage may vary.