Is it ok to scan important documents and shred originals?

Question

I saw this question posted by another user. I am interested in getting rid of clutter by scanning my W2's, utility bills, old bank statements (I now get e-statements), insurance policies (no original signatures), leases, etc. Not my birth certificate or marriage license. The majority of responses indicated that you should not scan these documents because copies cannot be used when originals are requested (ex. W2, bank statements). Is this true? I now receive all of my statements electronically and save the PDF. Are these not acceptable for mortgages, etc.??

Answer 1

Some of these things you might just throw away.  How long are you saving your utility bills?  I keep two years worth because I compare the usage.  But you really only need to keep maybe one year.  

You probably have a lot of other bills/statements/receipts that you don't need to save forever but only a few years.

You can definitely scan bank statements and there shouldn't be any problem scanning your income tax returns (which is where your W2 should be attached.  And these are things you should defnitely keep.

If the insurance policies you are referring to are car and homeowner insurance rather than life insurance, you really don't need to keep old policies once they expire and you get a new one for the renewal.

Answer 2

Yes, you can use scanned versions for the originals.  But please remember to back up your hard drive.

Answer 3

It is perfectly safe to scan W2's, old utility bills and bank statements, leases, insurance policies. I assume by "scanning" you mean to store these on a CD or DVD to reduce  what you call "clutter." It is NOT legal or acceptable to scan licenses: marriage, driver, etc., or birth or death certificates. For mortgage loans, the lender needs to see the originals. If they want copies for their files, they will make them, which is OK for them to use, once they've confirmed the originals exist.

The Department of Human Services accepts bank statement copies and will make a copy for their records of any other legal documents they want.

I don't mean it is illegal to make copies, just that most agencies will not ACCEPT a copy they haven't made themselves.

Answer 4

It's totally up to you on how you would like to store your documents.  However, you must understand that anything that you store on your computer is accessible by the government, and possible hackers.

Your harddrive stores all information forever.   So if you replace your computer make sure you remove your harddrive, and smash it to bits.  A good computer tech can access hard drive information, if 10% of it is still intact.

In terms of whether your scanned copies are good for mortgage companies.  Well, they usually make copies of the documentation anyways.  Or they fax the information into lenders.  So technically they never use the originals.  But if the broker feels that some of the information that you are sending is potenially fraudulent, these people can request to see the original document.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Any business is always better off if one has the original documents.  You must have the originals for leagal issues.  Save them then at the same time put them all on