BrisbaneBound2008

Hiy everyone, just about to tackle clearing out the office and wondered what would be best to do...

I plan on scanning in a whole load of bank stats - how far back should I go? I was thinking last 5yrs, is that too much, too little? Will I really need this info?

Also, paranoid that the memory stick might fail and we'll lose everything on it so thought about taking some originals say from the last 2yrs. Is that enough? I'm thinking we'll take these in on our person rather than with shipping - what do you think?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

EvannTel

Whay do you need any of it?

donovandenese

only reason i can think you may need them is if you have any tax returns investigated by the Inland Revenue - they can go back up to 6 years. i wouldn't keep any in originals, scan what you want to keep, put on a couple of memory sticks as backup - worst case scenario your bank can send you copies for a nominal fee. reckon you will need your luggage for other things on the plane!!

inOz2008

Ok this is scary how we are tripping on so many common things now!!!

Going paperless was an idea we stumbled across recently when a friend of ours moved to the US - I was so envious to see his simple set-up that I decided to do the same and in the process discovered we have old bills from 10 years ago...that were from 2-3 properties ago prior to our current one!!!

We've elected to scan our bank statements and take perhaps 1 years worth of latest paper statements with us (shred/burn the rest!)...and also get a generic letter from bank saying we are good customers etc etc. This together with the credit report from Experian would be enough we guess to show some level of credit history be it from another country. (we are also scanning credit card statements & utility bills where applicable). From a legal perspective in UK I think you need 6 years worth of stuff if you ever wanted to settle disputed payments from the past but in some cases scanned copies may be frowned upon/not acceptable so its down to your personal choice I am afraid on what and how much you scan & keep vs shred/burn. Oh and multiply that by number of accounts/cards you have!! In our cases turning up at the recycling yard with 11 boxes of paper was received with some puzzled looks from the foreman there, questioning if that much paper waste was really all our personal paperwork!!

We're getting an external hard drive to back all this up and also store on mem sticks as back up of back ups! And if you are ok with online, then there are folks like Apple (I am sure there are others) who provide a 10GB online back-up service for a nominal'ish charge. All secured etc and you can access this from anywhere via a website I believe. See if that suits you or not...

Also worth scanning all orignals like birth certificates etc and also taking these in flight with you - insurance may cover loss of boxes lost in shipping but the hassle of replacing all the docs from abroad is even more frightening! At least on your person, you are likely to take better care of it. Also, you may need some of these docs when you get there (whilst your container is still enroute)

Good luck with going paperless...or not!

BrisbaneBound2008

Thanks for that everyone! I know we'll probably not need them but I'm a 'just in case' kinda gal ! Am sure I'll chill out a bit more when we get to Oz So decision made - Will scan whatever I have time to scan and take a years worth in paper. That'll only be a few pages!

I'm not worrying about credit history stuff, have heard it doesn't apply anyway and defianetly taking originals of birth certs etc on us.

Its very liberating, cancelling everything and shredding your life history!

BrisbaneBound2008

InOz2008 - We are really near Watford, spooky! Where are you off to in Oz and when do you leave? Must be soon, sounds like your getting really organised!

inOz2008

BrisbaneBound - were off to Perth in early May if it all comes together in time...."Organised" is not the word I would use to describe out state of affairs!! Everytime I tick off one thing, there are 10 others to do!!

PM us if you want to exchange benefits of each others last minute to-do list!!