You can usually download old bank statements from online banking for a set number of years, often up to seven for checking and savings accounts, and less for cards and loans. For anything older, ask the bank for a copy. Requested copies take days to arrive and may come as a PDF, a scan or paper.
How many years of old bank statements stay online?
It depends on the bank and the account type. Chase says up to seven years, depending on the account type, and Wells Fargo says up to seven for deposit accounts, with shorter windows for cards and loans. Check your own bank's help pages, since a card's window can be much shorter.
Published windows at three banks
The table summarises what each bank's own page says. Policies change, so treat it as a starting point and confirm in your account.
| Bank | What its page says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Chase | Up to 7 years of statements, depending on account type | Chase paperless statements page |
| Wells Fargo | Up to 7 years for deposit, home mortgage, and trust and managed investment accounts; 2 years for credit cards, home equity lines and personal loans or lines; 12 months for auto loans | Wells Fargo online statements page |
| Citi (cards) | Only statements issued after the card was registered for Citi Online are available at once; older ones are requested | Citi guide to requesting previous statements |
Why cards and loans differ
Card and loan statements are kept online for shorter spells at some banks, as the Wells Fargo row shows: two years for cards against seven for checking. If you need old card statements, start with them, since they leave the online window first.
Downloading old bank statements before they leave the window
Every month, the oldest statement in the window drops out. If you know you will need a run of years, for a mortgage, a dispute or a tax question, download every month now in one sitting. A folder of PDFs on your own drive does not expire, while the online archive moves on.
What to save
Save the statement PDF from the bank's statements section, not a screenshot or a printout. At Chase, for example, the bank's page says statements sit under Statements & documents in the main menu. Most banks use a similar menu. Rename each file with the account and month as you save it.
Check each file
Open a few of the saved files. Older statements are sometimes stored in a different layout from current ones, and an occasional month may fail to download fully. Scroll to the last page of each and confirm it shows the closing balance.
Requesting old bank statements the bank no longer shows online
When a statement is older than the online window, request it from the bank. Some banks let you ask inside online banking; others need a call, a secure message or a branch visit. Expect a wait. Citi's guide for card accounts, for example, says requests for older statements may take 48 to 72 hours.
How the online request works
Citi's guide describes a typical flow. Choose the year and month from drop-down boxes and click Request. The request shows in a status area as processing. After two or three days, sign back in and look for the months marked ready for download. Repeat the request for each month you need.
Requests by phone or in person
For statements beyond any online request, ask for them by phone or at a branch. Say exactly which account, which months and which format you want. Ask whether there is a fee, since some banks charge for research or copies of old records. Ask how the copies will be sent, so you know whether to expect an email, a download or post.
What format do archived bank statements arrive in?
Archived statements can come back in several forms: a normal statement PDF regenerated from the bank's records, a scan of the paper statement that was mailed at the time, or a printed copy sent by post. The format decides how easily the copy converts to a spreadsheet, so ask for a digital PDF when you can.
Regenerated PDFs
A regenerated PDF holds real text, just like a recent download, and converts as cleanly. It may use the bank's layout from that period, so the columns can differ from this year's. The steps in turning a PDF bank statement into an Excel list work the same way on it.
Scans and paper
A scan holds an image of each page. Every digit has to be recognised from pixels before it can go into Excel, so check the amounts against the page. A paper copy has to be scanned first. If the bank offers a choice, a regenerated PDF saves the most time.
Old bank statements that will not convert cleanly
Some old copies cause trouble in Excel however they arrive: faint scans, statements from a layout the bank has since retired, and copies where the debit and credit columns are labelled in ways that are easy to read backwards. Check these before you build anything on the converted rows.
Things to check
- Debit and credit labels. Older layouts may label columns differently. What debit and credit mean on a bank statement explains which way each one moves the balance.
- Layout that falls apart. A copy with boxes, shading or multi-line entries can lose its column structure. Converting a PDF to Excel without losing formatting covers what can be kept and what to rebuild.
- The balance. Opening balance plus every line must still equal the closing balance, however old the statement is.
For a Chase account, converting a Chase bank statement to Excel walks through that bank's layout. FastBankConvert is getting ready to open and is built to warn you before download when a statement's balances do not add up; the FastBankConvert home page explains more.