How Long Should I Keep My Credit Card Statements?

After paying your bills, don't throw away your credit card statement just yet. Credit card statements can help you trace your purchases for the past several years and enable you to track down erroneous transactions charged to your account.

How long should I keep my monthly credit card statements for?

Deciding how long to keep a credit card statement really depends on how you use your credit card. Your statement does more then just tell you how much you have to pay each month. It is a break down of all of your purchases and any other fees that the card company charges. In addition, it can tell you if there are any fraudulent or mistaken charges on your account. This is why it is important for every cardholder to carefully review their monthly statement. If you neglect to do so you could wind up paying for charges that are not yours, or worse having your identity stolen.

If you are one of the many people who uses your credit card for work related expenses you will want to keep it at least until you have been reimbursed for those costs. A credit card statement can act in place of a lost receipt, although receipts are usually preferred. Whether you have lost the receipt or your employer misplaces it after you turn it in, it is good to have another record of your charges so that you can ensure that your employer pays you back for those expenses.

Those who are self employed will need to keep their card statements for a bit longer. When you use your statement for business expenses you can use it as back up when you file your taxes. Again, you will also want to keep a receipt of your business transactions. The credit card statement is also a good way for you to track the charges of employees whom you have entrusted with an additional card on your account. It allows you to monitor all of their transactions and note any patterns in spending. As a business owner your credit card statements should be kept in the same location as your other financial records. They should only be destroyed when the other financial records from that same period are no longer needed.

Keeping credit card statement that you have used for personal transactions only is a matter of personal preference. Some people think seven years is the right amount of time to keep them because this is as long as is necessary to keep other financial records. However, statements can be quite bulky so you may not want to keep them for that long. No matter how long you choose to keep them, great care should always be taken when disposing of them. Card statements should always be shredded and not just thrown in the trash in order to reduce your risk of identity theft.

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