When you use a credit card, it’s even important to keep the receipt because it could come in handy later. Even though many people think of receipts from credit cards as old paperwork, they serve a clear purpose in your finances.
When should receipts be discarded?
Customers who use a credit or debit card to pay their bill have up to 18 months to debate any charges. Because of this, it is important to keep all credit card transaction receipts for at least this long. This can be important if there is a dispute, because if the merchant doesn’t have the receipt to prove the purchase, the credit card provider can side only with the client and demand the merchant give the customer a refund. For a charge-back, a credit card provider can also take money out of a merchant account.
Receipt Collection
Phishing emails can use the sensitive information on credit card receipts to stop illegal purchase decisions on the accounts of customers who don’t know what’s going on. Most companies have really strict rules about where receipts can be kept so that this doesn’t happen. The Federal Trade Commissioner says that businesses that keep paper versions of processing credit card receipts should keep them in a locked room as well as file cabinet. Also, only management staff should be able to see the information. Industries that keep digital copies should make sure that the files are encrypted and that at least two employees have parts of both the encryption key. So, really no person can open the file on their own.
Discarding receipts
When companies with merchant accounts have kept receipts for a long enough time, they often make a decision that it is safe to throw them away. The Federal Communications Commission has set general rules for how receipts should be kept and how they should be thrown away. In accordance with the FTC Removal Rule, all receipts should be at least shredded, and most of the time they should also be burned. If you have digital files, you should use a security programme that erases and rewrites them until they can’t be read.
Read more: Why digital receipts is important
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