I have a big filing cabinet where I keep years worth of utility bills, credit card statements, student loan statements, etc… Since I have plenty of room in the filing cabinet I never considered how long I should hold on to these things, but lately I haven’t had time to file them and I have a big unfiled stack in a basket. I got to thinking that I’ve been keeping this crap for 10 years (I have electric bills from a place I lived three moves ago) and I have never, not once, had a need for any of it.
Then I started trying to come up with scenarios in which I might actually need to pull them out, and I couldn’t think of a single one. Once I get the next month’s bill, which shows that the last month’s bill was paid, what do I need to hold on to last month’s bill for?
Has anyone ever needed to go back and find a utility bill from the distant (or even recent) past? How long do you hold on to these types of things? Is there a good reason that I’m missing?
Personally, I toss my utility bills as soon as I pay them most of the time; sometimes I’ll keep them until the next month’s bill arrives.
I keep credit card statements pretty much permanently (as I do most of my transactions by credit card, including things like gym memberships for which I may need to provide supporting evidence of payment).
Bankrate has a schedule of what to keep and how long here. Obviously, this is just a starting point, check your state and local laws, etc., etc.
I keep them for a year. As I pay each quarter’s account I like to look at the same quarter from last year so that I can gauge whether my usage has increased or decreased, how much the price has gone up etc. Then I throw away the bill from the corresponding quarter last year.
I don’t know how ill-advised this is, but I keep nothing.
[sgt. schultz]noth-ING.[s.s.]
My payment due notices come to me via e-mail and I pay everything online. Both of my credit cards allow me to look at monthly statements as far back as 24 months.
It’s great. My snail-mail box contains almost nothing but junk these days and as a result I only go out to empty it once a week, if I remember to.
I look at it for a few seconds to see what is up, pay it, and toss it. I don’t see the point of saving it either if everything looks Ok the first time. The worst case is that you could be the first person who has actually needed info from an 8 month old gas bill and you would just have to call the company to get the information again. They do keep that stuff and will be happy to share it with you again.
I keep a month or two (or longer if I’m just feeling lazy), just in case I need to find a phone number or have something for proof of residency (like making a trip to the landfill). Mine are drafted from my account, so I don’t have to worry about paying them.