Obtaining Complete Account Histories

[bahbahd]

Anyone know how to go about obtaining complete account histories for bank account transactions and credit cards accounts, etc. I'd like to change personal accounting softwares and need to get the data in a format that I can import into the software. Is this next to impossible to get a hold of?

[bahbahd]

I do realize this is something that I would probably have to pay for. I am just unsure how available this is through banks and other organizations.

[llecs]

I'd just ask each bank/creditor. I bank via their own websites and can easily pull the past years' worth of history, sometimes the past 2 or 3 years. In tackling past baddies, I've asked for and received statements that were years old.

I'm not sure which software you are using, but I use Quickbooks for biz daily and used Quicken in the past. It doesn't recommend entering the entire history. It recommends picking a fixed date, like October 1, and entering the opening balances of that day for each account. I know it's handy to have the current full year in there for taxes, etc.

[bahbahd]

Thanks for your reply. Part of this is to deal with re-fileing past years of taxes, so, unfortunately I do need to generate a good past history. Personally I used software a few years ago, then stopped for a while, then used another software for a few years, then stopped, and now wanting to start up again. Well, the old data is not very helpful since it is sporadic. We'll see how far I get. Thanks.

[llecs]

I've been in the situation where I needed past statements for tax purposes. IMO, I think it would be easier to track it manually via Excel, a notebook, or whatever. I'd think it would be a pain in the but to get it integrated into a software, if not impossible for past years. But you can definitely ask for past statements and still get them online depending on the lender/banker.

[RobertEG]

To the extent that a creditor has reported account information to a CRA, and that information is still in your credit file, you can always send a formal request to the CRA under FCRA 609(a)(1), which entitles any consumer to "all information in their file at the time of the request."

Section 609(a)(1) requests require the consumer to provide proof of identity along with the current processing fee, which is $11.00.

They can also be used to obtain any other information, such as a reported DOFD.

[bettercreditguy1]

Generally speaking, back checking account statements are available. If they need to go into the "archive" they often charge by the hour to retrieve. My questions is How much detail do you need? If you just need items like total interest paid, total interest earned, total annual bank chgs etc. until perhaps one or two years of current, cost should be nominal. Usually "extreme detail" is not needed unless you need raw costs (business inventory) or accrual costs ( stock/mutual fund/bond purchase) farther back than two years. New laws now allow many documents to be shredded/un recovered after 5 complete calender years. Just curious why you need all of the trails?

[bahbahd]

I probably don't need that detailed history. I've actually kept more than enough statements and bills going back further than 5 years. I should probably get a shredder.