Credit Card Receipt Disposal

[pb4uski]

The original question was about risk of throwing out receipts with partial cc#’s. I’ve had this discussion with DW many times. I can imagine someone actually going through trash of a personal residence these days looking for that kind of information. ....

And even if they do find it they are missing 12 of the 16 digits of the account number, the expiration date and the CSC number so what are they going to accomplish with the last 4 numbers?

 

[24601NoMore]

I keep all CC receipts until I reconcile the card (in Quicken) each month. Then shred all of them, except for the ones I need for proof of purchase or warranty purposes.

 

[badatmath]

I throw mine out no marking or shredding. Never had a problem. Never even occurred to me it was a possibility.

 

[CardsFan]

I throw mine out no marking or shredding. Never had a problem. Never even occurred to me it was a possibility.

I fall into this camp as well. I figure I have used cards on dozens of web sites, and given all of my info. So why be paranoid about the last 4 digits in a garbage can?

Besides, that is why I use a credit card and not a debit card. My liability for fraud is quite limited. (I know the same can apply to a debit card, but your money is still missing until credited back)

 

[gauss]

If the FULL CC number was on the receipt, then I would probably quarantine and shred them.

With only the last 4 numbers show, I perceive virtually no risk to me -- especially given the laws that limit consumers liability for CC fraud and the hair-trigger fraud detection systems in place with the cards that I use.

-gauss

 

[audreyh1]

I just have a system to collect all sensitive documents - that includes reconciled credit card receipts, and putting them in a bin to be shredded, and I shred then all every month or so before putting them in the trash. It doesn't take long to shred them unless it's old or review copies of tax returns.

 

[sengsational]

I load them in my pocket when I buy stuff and toss em in the trash when I wash the clothes.

I'm considering upgrading to your system. It's easier than mine, and that's sayin' somethin'!!

 

[Cat-tirement]

The image below shows the space I dedicate to receipt storage. When it gets to the top, as it is now, I grab a handful from the bottom and throw it in the stinky kitchen trash (if they want it bad enough to go through rotting chicken carcasses, they really need the money, and besides, the credit card company will make me whole anyway).

Looks a lot like my stack, though I substitute used cat litter for disposal.

 

[Katsmeow]

I scan all receipts to a PDF, OCR them, and upload to Evernote. For something that is big ticket or possibly might be returned for a refund, I put in a file for that month and keep until the warranty is up or the return window is over. All other receipts are discarded once they have been scanned. I usually just throw in the trash. Some documents that I scan I do shred, but not usually credit card receipts.

 

[ERD50]

Originally Posted by kcowan
You might want to consider making a copy. The ink on some receipts disappears with time.

+1


I have saved receipts for some purchases that have a warranty period, only to find that near the end of the warranty period the receipt had all but faded away. So I make a copy. Actually, I scan then and save the softcopy a PC folder that is backed up.

Handy tip, that may work one time if you find a faded receipt that you want to be able to read:

Test a small corner, with some rubbing alcohol. It will likely turn the background dark, but the faded areas will not be affected, so you get a 'negative'. If that doesn't work, try applying heat. Then take a picture or copy it, you only get one chance!

-ERD50

 

[timo2]

I shred everthing with any personally identifiable information on it and/or all credit card receipts. Except for, as others have noted, documents of consequence that I might need for later. I scan those and then shred them, usually. (of course there are exceptions)

 

[mountainsoft]

I save my credit card receipts in an envelope until I get my credit card statement. Then I simply discard the receipts. They only have the last four digits of my card so there's no security risk.

The vast majority of our receipts don't need to be kept beyond a month, clothing, groceries, and other random items. However, I do scan any receipts that we might need for later reference, warranties, or whatever. Things like TV's, home improvement items (when did we buy that water heater?), and that sort of thing.

I used to save old receipts in our file safe before I started scanning them. I cleaned out the file safe last year and discovered numerous receipts that were completely blank. The "ink" had simply faded away. So now I make it a point to scan them as soon as possible before they start to fade.

 

[Katsmeow]

I agree that most credit card receipts don't "need" to be kept. However, I have gotten a lot of value the past few years from scanning in all of them. Yes, in YNAB I have a record that I spent $X at Kroger or Target or whatever. The advantage of the receipt is that it tells me what exactly I bought. By OCRing the receipts I get a lot of data that is available later on to look up stuff. For example, recently I wanted to do some analysis of my grocery spending. I specifically wanted to know what categories of food I had purchased and where and for how much. I was partly comparing grocery stores for like items but also I wanted to know how much we spent for, say, fruit as compared to frozen meals as compared to crackers, etc. By looking at my receipts over a period of a few months I was able to easily figure that out and use the data.

 

[sengsational]

I love data, so although I wouldn't scan for "proof", if paper can just be conveniently "archived", the idea of OCR and having that data is a value-add for the time of scanning. It does bug me that stuff at a "Super Center" can be anything. For us, it's mostly groceries, but gifts, luggage (travel), furniture (household), paint (decorating) car parts, who knows...it's all in there. And I'm not patient enough to do splits in my system. I do a split if it's "big", but otherwise, we have a blurred picture of what's getting spent. But I'm not quite as interested in sharpening the picture as many of us here. It can be kind of a fun hobby to do this kind of thing for some people. Not me, lol!

 

[aja8888]

I used to be like some of the posters here and keep detailed spending records and scan all the receipts. But now at over 70 years of age, I don't really care if the bunch of carrots I bought in 2005 were $0.79 and now they are $1.15.

I do still use Quicken, but have maybe 15 grossed up categories of spending. 95% of spending is on a CC. My use of this is for annual review of where the money went vs. our "loose" budget estimate. I look at it, then see where the deviations are, then adjust for next year.

As far as CC receipts, I save them for a while, then throw them out, keeping the proof of purchase ones for the big items in case I need to warranty something due to a problem.

 

[Sunset]

I load them in my pocket when I buy stuff and toss em in the trash when I wash the clothes.

My DW tells me I use a variation of your method:

I load them in my pocket when I buy stuff and toss em in the clothes wash, then put the bits of clumps in the trash.