What Is a Bank Statement?

A bank statement is issued by bank document, containing list of financial transactions on a given account, over a given period of time (usually monthly). It can be printed on paper, send by email, or available on bank’s website for download, usually as PDF file. The last option is usually free, when requiring paper document being send to your home address will often cost small fee.

Although most banks will allow access to their statement online from their website, there is no guarantee, that will it will remain there forever, so it’s good idea to download them and store in secured location.

How are bank statements created?

What it contains?

Although design of bank statements may differ significantly between banks, they usually will include:

• bank name and phone number
• your home address
• account number
• beginning and ending date for the statement
• and of course transaction list, with date and payer or payee name

What sort of transactions it shows?

All transactions can simply be grouped into just two types, you either receive (deposit) or spend (withdrawal). List of these transactions may include:

• direct deposits in bank branch or cash deposit machines
• withdrawals – including ATM and card transactions
• online payments, including virtual cards
• paid fees
• recurring automatic deduction payments
• earned interests
• depending on bank, pending transactions can be included or not
• starting and ending day balance is usually also included

Why you may need it?

You may need your bank statements for few reasons:

• taxes: tax settlement, applying for tax return
• loan: applying for loan, as a proof of income
• apartment: agency or landlord may request to see it before signing a lease
• visa: some countries require them as one of documents when applying for a visa
• money management: you may also want to keep track of your transactions on a regular basis, to keep an eye on your personal finances and watch for fraud. Regular auditing your bank statements can help you both uncover errors (e.g. double payments) or fraudulent transactions, and develop healthier spending habits (e.g. seeing subscriptions you do use any more)

Abbreviations used in bank statements

Bank statements, as other financial documents may use abbreviations, that may be hard to understand if you’re not familiar with banking. Here are some most commonly used:

• ATM: withdrawal from ATM machine
• BGC: bank giro credit (deposit at bank’s branch)
• BIC / IBAN / SWIFT: identifications numbers used in international bank transactions
• CDM: withdrawal from ATM machine
• CHG: charge
• CHP: CHAPS payment (British bank to bank for high value transactions)
• CHQ: cheque
• BP: bill payment
• DR: can be debit balance or overdrawn
• CR: credit
• COR: correction of transaction error
• DD: direct debit
• SO: standing order
• FP: faster payment
• TRF: transfer

You can find more comprehensive list of bank abbreviations (over 100 of them) here.

How to get your bank statement?

Usually the easiest option is to get it online. Log in, find where you banks website has the option to generate bank statement – this can be ‘transactions’, ‘transactions history’, ‘e-statements’, ‘bank statements’, ‘services’, or something similar. Then choose the starting and ending date, and click button to generate statement. You can then preview and download it. For security, log out your internet banking when you finish.

In case you need paper version, you usually can also order it in your online banking settings. If you can’t see that option there, it’s best to call your banks customer service and order it via phone. Or, as an alternative, you can download it from their website, as described above, and then print it to get paper copy.