As a credit cardholder, each month you receive a monthly billing statement that details your credit card activity. You credit card statement includes a list of transactions you’ve made, fees that have been charged and payments made to your account.

However, you might have several credit card statements coming each month and your mail can pile up. You don’t want to get rid of statements that you might need, but you also don’t want to hold onto unnecessary mail. So how long should you keep your statements? Keep reading to to find out more about how long you’ll need to keep your statements and why.

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Guidelines for keeping Credit Card Statements

Keep each credit card statements for a minimum of 60 days. Within this time frame, you can settle any dispute on any billing errors on a credit card statement. Then once it’s done, credit card issuers aren’t legally required to handle billing error disputes, so it’s not necessary to hold onto your statements any longer than that, at least not for dispute reasons.

However, you can keep your credit card statements for any items you want to be covered by your credit card’s extended warranty or purchase protection and keep that particular credit card for the amount of time the benefit is effective.

If you have any tax-related purchases – donations or business expenses – on your credit card statement, make sure to keep those statements for six years. Your accountant or tax preparer will be needing those statements for your next tax return! Plus it’s never a bad thing to hold on to them just in case your taxes are ever audited.

It’s also, if you’re like me, a habitual tracker, it can be useful for tracking your spending over a period of time. You can see several months of credit card statements to figure out where you’re spending too much money, because three to six months of credit card statements may be enough to give you a good preview of your spending habits.

Should you keep credit card receipts?

Credit card receipts can pile up faster than credit card statements, especially if you’re a heavy spender. You can also follow similar guides for credit card receipts.

If you even find an error on your credit card statement, the receipt you’ve kept will come in handy once you dispute the charges. It’s also good to keep tax and business related credit card receipts for your tax accountant. You also can store receipts longer in case of a tax audit.

Storing Old Credit Card Statements

But if you’re holding onto a credit card statement for a specific reason, it’ll help you a lot to label the statement or include a sticky note detailing the reason for keeping the statement.

You should keep your credit card statements in a safe place, so it won’t be lost, stolen, or destroyed. A safe is a good place to store your statements, along with any other financial documents or valuables. If you’re stored credit card statements on your computer, place them in a password-protected folder and be sure to keep a password on your computer too.

The Best Way to get rid of Credit Card Statements

To avoid risk of fraud, you should be careful of how you throw away credit card statements you no longer need. Don’t just throw them in the trash because it’s unsafe since it leaves too much of your personal information exposed.

Shredding credit card statements is the best way to get ride of them once you’re sure you no longer need them. This help prevent dumpster divers from stealing your statements and using the information to make authorized charges on your account or to steal your identity.

Bottom Line

We all have different reasons on why we keep credit card statements! These statements represent the activity that takes place within your bank account—a checking, savings, or other type of account held at your financial institutions.

While you’re here on HustlerMoneyBlog, you can check out the latest credit card bonus, as well as read through out credit card reviews to see which card is the best for you!