Print Credit Card Payment Confirmation?

[eisor]

Random question...

Do you print the payment confirmation page when paying your credit card, bills, etc.?

Do you print online shopping receipts?


I always print the credit card and bill confirmation pages. I print paypal receipts as well. I don't print an online shopping receipt if I see that I have it in my email.

I keep them and put them in a file box.

Is it really necessary? What do you think?

[Caoineag]

Personally, I don't understand people who keep receipts. I only keep confirmations until I have the item and am sure I am not going to return it. If its a big item and you need the receipt for a warranty or a deduction fine, but otherwise, you are just collecting junk.

My friend keeps every receipt she ever gets but she also thought it was magic when I showed her how to plan in advance her expenses and income. I guess I just don't get it. What will keeping a receipt from buying a pack of gum really accomplish?

*Sigh* sorry, this is just a pet peeve of mine. The only people who I know keep their receipts are the same people who couldn't make a liveable budget to save their life. That probably taints my view of the whole receipt keeping quest.

[poundwise]

Originally Posted by eisor

Do you print the payment confirmation page when paying your credit card, bills, etc.?

Absolutely! I think it would be foolish not to.

Actually, I don't print them out on paper. I have a program that lets me "print" to a PDF file.

[sweeps]

I keep all receipts for at least 2 years. There have been numerous times when I need to reproduce a receipt. Sometimes to return something, sometimes to take advantage of a rebate program that came up after the fact, sometimes to find extra expenditures for my health care FSA or tax deducations, sometimes to resolve record-keeping issues. Receipts are not junk.

To the original question, I pay my credit card through my bank's online bill pay, so there is no confirmation to print. I prefer my bank's online bill pay over paying directly at a company's site because it reduces the risk of identity theft. (I don't like the idea of other companies storing my checking account information at their site.)

[puck36]

Originally Posted by Caoineag

Personally, I don't understand people who keep receipts.

The reason people keep receipts is for taxes. So at the end of the year people can take all their receipts and add up the sale tax and if it is more than the standard amount they can use that.

[mom-from-missouri]

I keep my online receipts. I once had Wachovia tell me I had not paid my CC that month--I had--I faxed them the copy with the confirmation number on it--they had to manually apply it to my account then.
I also save all sales receipts. I have 2 large envelopes. Medical ones go into one, the others go into the second one. Each year has its own envelope. At the end of each month, I add up all the sales tax for that month, write it on a post it, then staple the receipts for the month together, with the post it total of tax on top. At the end of the year, I add the 12 totals together for taxes.
I also keep the receipts for other reasons also--should my ex (father of 3 of our children) question or try to say I don't support my children, I have proof that I bought their food, shoes, clothes, camp fees, band instruments, child care..... He has never paid me a penny, but once tried to tell the court he supported them 50%. (That year he bought them each a jacket and tennis shoes). I had the proof with me-all the receipts. The judge ruled in my favor. He was trying to be able to claim them on his taxes, instead of me on mine.
Lastly, I had a fire in 2002. The receipt envelopes were all in the safe, and did not burn. I was able to use them for the insurance--what I had paid for items, and it also helped me to remember some items I had forgotten I had--such as an expensive camera.

[m3racer]

I download my cc statements as a pdf doc

[eisor]

I like the idea of downloading the docs to a PDF file. I'd have to find a way to store them though. I sometimes pay my bill at work and sometimes at home. I guess I could put them on my flash drive.

I looked into the Sales Tax information you all were talking about. I NEVER knew you could claim your sales tax instead of your state income taxes. Man, that would have been helpful! Had I know that this year, I would have saved all my receipts. My 2006 State Income Tax was only $359. I'm positive we've spent at least that in sales tax because we've spent a lot of money this year with the wedding, honeymoon, moving, etc.

I think next year DH and I will save all our receipts. I'd be interesting to see if the sales tax we spend ends up being more than our state income tax. I guess the key is being very organized!

Thanks for all your responses! I was just curious how everyone handled this.

[Caoineag]

Originally Posted by puck36

The reason people keep receipts is for taxes. So at the end of the year people can take all their receipts and add up the sale tax and if it is more than the standard amount they can use that.

Honestly, that is the first time I have heard of that. Now, that makes sense. The people I know who keep receipts do it to balance their checkbook because they are spenders who can't keep track of all the money they burn through. Then they keep the receipts for forever. Probably someone long ago told them to keep their receipts and so they do but they don't know why they do.

[loanstar]

I think printing wastes paper and ink, it might be better to just save a screen print on your computer.

In addition, there's always the transaction ID, also paypal keeps all your transactions data for several months, so you can always log in and retrieve it.

[jodi]

I print out the rare receipt that is not e-mailed to me. My cc, cell phone, online purchases - usually a record of the transaction is e-mailed, which I keep until I see that it has gone through correctly in my bank account. My mom forgot to do this with her cell phone bill and they never received the payment, so she had to pay late charges. I don't keep paper receipts unless they are for gifts that might need to be exchanged or for large purchases. I do keep receipts for medical expenses for my medical savings account, rebates (contact lenses), or something similar.

[puck36]

Sales Tax Deduction Calculator

[disneysaver]

If I don't print it I always write the confirmation # down when I record the payment in my "budget book".

[Hot dog]

I have never heard of claiming sales tax either but I just checked and I pay $59 every two weeks in state taxes that would be a lot of buying

[puck36]

Maybe it is just a State thing, but in South Dakota you can take sales tax on your return.

[sweeps]

If you're from Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming or Tennessee, you should be deducting your sales taxes since you don't have a state income tax.

[ifeel100]

If online transaction, I normally wont print it out coz sys got record / history can trace bck. Most of the time got email confirmation, so jst do our part 2 save those paper/tree

Others than tt, like daily receipts... I will keep it as a purchased / spending records, jst in case of refund or proof of refund. I'll stick in a notebook by date/category.