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I pay EVERY bill - usually within a day or two of getting them. I generally do not accept ebills if I can avoid them because I can sometimes easily ignore emails. I mark the paid date on the paper bill and put it into a folder (I used to scan them but my scanner has become a PITA and I haven't replaced it yet). I think I do this mostly because I don't trust companies to always do good accounting.
To be honest, I cannot really give more than one good reason for keeping more than the past statement, but I actually keep a rolling 2 years.
The one benefit I do get is that I can easily look back over the 2 years for a pattern to see if the expenses are headed up or down - and then adjust if necessary and possible.
Does anyone else keep old bills? What do you do with them?
I keep things like cc statements a year, unless i bought sonething like a major appliance, then i staple that with tge paperwork for it.
Then i shred them come the next year.
Taxes i keep at least 7 years, that is recommended by the govt, but i cant part with them, so i think ive git about 20 years stashed.
When i get a paper bill i write the date i paid it, check number or phone payment confirmation number or other identification numbers on it. I have had companies call to say they didnt get the payment, so i can reference payment method off the bill. Usually late mail, though one time they had to research a phone payment, and because i had the date and confirmation number they were able to track it down.
I prefer paper bills. I , too tend to miss emailed statements and then i dont get it paid it on time.
I can look back at old bills and see where weve been.
I have a big filing cabinet to file away the bills and other paper work.
If and when it gets to full, i purge and shred. If its really important it goes into plastic bin in the basement when no longer needed in the file cabinet.
Discard when next months bill comes in or even before. I can look bills up the internet so no need for them.
I keep year end statements for account numbers and address and discard when I get next years
I was raised by a man who believed in paper. It's rubbed off on me
When he died in 2007 I found every tax return and other materially important record
for every year going back to 1947 when they married in an old steel file cabinet.
Quote:
To be honest, I cannot really give more than one good reason for...
My reason is that I don't trust electronic records.
Quote:
Does anyone else keep old bills? What do you do with them?
The tax returns, bank statements, brokerage statements and the 20 or so other materially important papers for the year
don't add up to more than about a two inch stack. Three years fit neatly into a shoe box.
I don't keep any paper statements. Some cards I have do not offer electronic statements, so when the bill comes, it goes into the shredding bag. Everything gets paid via the issuer's website, I can always go back through my bank statements for specifics. I spend all day sitting at a computer, so it's rare that I miss anything that comes in via email. I also budget using a very detailed spreadsheet, so I don't worry about whether I got a statement or not. I know when things are due based on the spreadsheet, and I log into that several times a week.
I don't keep any paper statements. Some cards I have do not offer electronic statements, so when the bill comes, it goes into the shredding bag. Everything gets paid via the issuer's website, I can always go back through my bank statements for specifics. I spend all day sitting at a computer, so it's rare that I miss anything that comes in via email. I also budget using a very detailed spreadsheet, so I don't worry about whether I got a statement or not. I know when things are due based on the spreadsheet, and I log into that several times a week.
Yep. I have a spreadsheet I started in 2008 that lists every bill by date due. I even include some recurring business accounts, just to make sure I don't miss any. Every month I enter in what I pay. I pay almost everything online and don't get paper bills or statements.
I have never had a company call and ask when I paid, however, I do write amount and check # on business invoices.
The only time I needed statements was when I got audited. It was easy to print them out from those accounts.
I pay EVERY bill - usually within a day or two of getting them. I generally do not accept ebills if I can avoid them because I can sometimes easily ignore emails. I mark the paid date on the paper bill and put it into a folder (I used to scan them but my scanner has become a PITA and I haven't replaced it yet). I think I do this mostly because I don't trust companies to always do good accounting.
To be honest, I cannot really give more than one good reason for keeping more than the past statement, but I actually keep a rolling 2 years.
The one benefit I do get is that I can easily look back over the 2 years for a pattern to see if the expenses are headed up or down - and then adjust if necessary and possible.
Does anyone else keep old bills? What do you do with them?
Most common credit card stuff I keep two years. Brokerage statements , I keep forever.
No zero paper ever pretty much! If it’s paper and important it gets scanned and thrown away. The scanned copies are backed up to a RAID unit and also kept on the primary SSD so there’s no risk really of their loss except perhaps fire / home destruction and I’d likely still grab the RAID first and flee lol. If it’s that mission critical it’s backed up to the cloud via DropBox too for safety. That would be corporate records only.
I pay little attention to personal finances as far as statements and bills go. It’s all autopay and just takes care of itself. I may or may not review my CC statements ever but they’re so good at fraud prevention I don’t worry about it. If I saw a bill was oddly high I would review it. With my company I do all record keeping and it gets input into my Spending app and every cent tracked and accounted for. Those records are kept perfectly and any paper documents needed on the business side I put into files and keep for 7 years. I’ve thrown away some stuff 7+ years old but doubt I would do that again as I’m paranoid and the IRS does mention the 7 years applies to normal returns but mutters something about any fraud or whatever could have no statute of limitations so why not just be safe and keep all records so there’s no issues?
IRS may go 5 years back. Five years it is. Some appliances have 10 or more years warranty. Roofing material has 20-50 yrs. You get the gist?
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