How long do you keep OLD copies of your credit reports?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone!

I have SEVERAL copies of credit reports from over the years. They are all in a large binder along with notes of any accounts that I had worked on clearing up. I have them separated by CRA, oldest to newest. My oldest copy is a page that a lender copied for me from a TU report on 01/26/2000. Most of my bulk is from 2008, 2010, 2012. (I do have copies since then, but fewer and farther between). 

I have always kept them as a reminder of where I never want to be again. Time to clean house and move on. Planning to keep last 5 years.

I am curious how long do you keep yours; at what point do you get rid of them? 

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I've been starting to scan and shred old statements and CR's. I recently got a good deal on a printer that will scan two-sided through the automatic feeder, which makes it easy to save PDF's and ditch the paper. The only things I've kept older than a few years on paper are any documents from opening accounts.

[Anonymous]

I don't have a very long history and not many copies of credit reports either. But I keep the reports in electronic version (PDFs) for future reference. There are rarely hard copies of the reports sent to me anyways, all the big-3 are electronic versions when I requested, the rest are other bureaus and I don't request them often.

[Anonymous]

I use a rapid scan app on my smartphone which automatically "squares" stuff I scan and puts it all into PFDs, which I file by Subject>Year>Month on a cloud drive.

I don't keep any paperwork very long anymore, unless it's for tax purposes, then I keep it for the legally required time frame.

[Anonymous]

Good feedback, thanks everyone! 

[Revelate]

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I just print to PDF any reports I get online anyway... and paper ones (sigh Equifax) I just throw away.

My online count of reports over the years is probably 30:1 as compared to paper reports.

[Anonymous]

When you request free annual credit reports, can you opt to get them in sent via a file or do they have to come as a hard copy?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

When you request free annual credit reports, can you opt to get them in sent via a file or do they have to come as a hard copy?

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They can deliver the reports online, through the bureaus' websites, as long as they are able to verify your identity. They may or may not be able to provide you a pdf directly (TransUnion allows you to download the pdf, but Experian doesn't have this option), but you can always print the web page as a pdf and save it by yourself.

[Anonymous]

I’d say as long as you wish. I only keep my most recent one. I would keep any paperwork showing deals on accounts for 7 to 10 years. But credit reports to me doesn’t need to be kept longer than when the next newest one comes out. Or put older ones in a folder on the computer if you are OCD :-)

[expatCanuck]

Keep old credit reports ... ?