Any Need to Keep Credit Reports?

[easysurfer]

I've been keeping my credit reports after every year of requesting them.

Just went ahead at looked at my current reports and saw nothing funky going on like not recognized accounts.

Is there any real value of hanging onto the old reports? I can't really think of any, so may just delete and shred.

 

[jazz4cash]

Shreddit

 

[Onward]

I keep them, but then I keep everything forever.

 

[FireFool]

I keep them, but then I keep everything forever.

I pity the person that has to sort through your estate. Seriously, bequeathing a mess of papers where some might have meaning and others not is doing no one any favor.

 

[COcheesehead]

They change almost every week.

 

[Onward]

I pity the person that has to sort through your estate. Seriously, bequeathing a mess of papers where some might have meaning and others not is doing no one any favor.

Everything is carefully filed and labeled, with my heirs in mind. But yes, there will be a lot to go through.

I'm hoping the thorough records will help, not hinder, my heirs.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I get my credit reports 3x a year, once from each bureau, and then print them to PDF, because I keep EVERYTHING electronically. Even written estimates and invoices get scanned and then shredded. I'm not sure I'll ever need them, but it's not like I'm going to run out of disk space. (I currently run an 11TB NAS at home for storage and as a media server.)

 

[MRG]

I get my credit reports 3x a year, once from each bureau, and then print them to PDF, because I keep EVERYTHING electronically. Even written estimates and invoices get scanned and then shredded. I'm not sure I'll ever need them, but it's not like I'm going to run out of disk space. (I currently run an 11TB NAS at home for storage and as a media server.)

What do you use for content management?[emoji111]

 

[easysurfer]

I just got a used (new to me) portable scanner. Scanned my credit reports for the last two years and saved as PDF. Then then asked myself, "Do I really need to keep them at all?" Probably no, but depends on how much of a data hoarder I am .

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

What do you use for content management?[emoji111]

Google Drive, a folder structure with a folder just for credit reports, and a logical file naming system (YYYY-MM [bureau name]).

And before anyone says anything about cloud storage, I use 2-factor authentication, I get notified when anyone (always me so far) approves a new device, and I use a very strong randomized password. My need to check these documents on the fly outweighs the small increase in security I'd get by air gapping them. I had been using Truecrypt until it reached its end-of-life.

 

[COcheesehead]

Google Drive, a folder structure with a folder just for credit reports, and a logical file naming system (YYYY-MM [bureau name]).

And before anyone says anything about cloud storage, I use 2-factor authentication, I get notified when anyone (always me so far) approves a new device, and I use a very strong randomized password. My need to check these documents on the fly outweighs the small increase in security I'd get by air gapping them. I had been using Truecrypt until it reached its end-of-life.

I use Google drive too. I can access things from anywhere. I even bury a copy of my passport there.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I use Google drive too. I can access things from anywhere. I even bury a copy of my passport there.

IMO LastPass has better security, so I keep information like that in LP, and not at all in Google Drive or Dropbox. But as long as you are at least using Google's two factor authentication, where you need to enter a text or input a generated code on each device at least once every so often, that's pretty good.

 

[RunningBum]

I get my credit reports online and save them in pdf form on my backup up laptop. Not only is this easier to save, but it's also easier to search. At less than 1MB each, this is a trivial amount of storage to use.

If I had them in paper format I'd probably save the last one from each agency just so if something odd did show up I would be able to verify it happened in the last year. I probably wouldn't waste the time to scan the old ones.

Every few years I go through and get rid of old paper records that there's really no sense in saving. It makes my life easier, and will certainly make my son's life easier when I go. Since the last big purge earlier this year I'll probably try to do a smaller purge after tax time each year.

 

[easysurfer]

My initial attempt is also to get the reports online and save as pdf. But I must not be a good multiple choice test taker as have answered incorrectly. So, I just order paper copies the old fashioned way.