What is a bank statement?
A bank statement is a document that details and summarises all your transactions, and is prepared and sent to you by your bank at the end of every month. It summarises everything from deposits and withdrawals to any service charges, and shows your ending balance after all the transactions of the month.
These statements help you to learn more about your financial habits and gives you a detailed breakdown of your monetary habits and spending. It can help you to recognise spending habits and track finances, identify any errors or discrepancies to help reduce fees etc and much more.
Key takeaways from this section:
- Your bank statement is a summary of all your financial activity for a set time period, usually monthly.
- Bank statements will also include a beginning and ending balance for the time period it encompasses.
- Bank statements will detail all of your transactions to help you track finances, identify potential fraud and help to manage fees.
- Account holders will have the option of receiving a physical copy of their statement through the post or an electronic version via email.
Understanding bank statements
Bank statements contain details such as personal identifying information including your name, address, and bank account number. It also summarises all the deposits into your account, transfers, reimbursements, payments, interest earned and more for the period of time covered by your bank statement.
You can also find information about your bank, instructions for reporting fraud and mistakes and customer service information should you need to call for anything. Bank statements can be sent monthly, quarterly or annually, and this can be changed according to your preferences. All transactions will appear in a chronological order on your bank statements so you can easily understand and remember what you spent and when.
Bank statements for business
If you own a business or have a business bank account, you will receive statements separate to your personal documents. Business bank statements will, similar to personal bank statements, list all of your transactions that have been taken through your business bank account, helping you to see a breakdown of your financial activity.
If you have multiple bank accounts for business use, you should receive multiple bank statements relating to each individual account – for example you may have a personal current account, a business current account, a payroll account and more. Business bank statements will include information similar to that of a personal statement, but will list your business’s information and identifying details instead.
Balance Sheet FAQs
What is an official bank statement?
A bank statement is a document that summarises all of your financial activity and your current balance for a specific time period, prepared and sent to you by your bank.
How can I get a bank statement?
Account holders can access their latest bank statements on their online banking app or through their bank’s website. You can also directly get in touch with your bank to request a physical copy to be posted to your area of residence.
How long should I keep my bank statements?
You may sometimes need access to old bank statements in particular instances such as applying for a loan or even getting a divorce. By law, banks are required to keep records of your statements should you ever need it, although some may charge a fee if you require statements from a few years back.
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