While it is recommended that you hold on to your bank statements for a few months after you receive them, after a while you will need to discard your old statements so that your home does not become overrun by these documents.  Because your bank statements contain such vital personal information you never want to just throw your old statement directly into the trash.  At the very least you will want to mark off your account numbers and any other information that you do not want strangers to have should they stumble across your old bank statements.

Ripping your bank statements up before throwing them away is one good way to make it difficult for someone to get your account numbers when you throw your statements away, but even when you rip these papers up someone can easily tape them back together and read your personal info.  The best way to ensure that no one can read the information contained on an old bank statement is to put these documents through a shredder.  A shredder will tear the paper up into tiny bits, making it impossible for someone to be able to piece it back together and find out what your account numbers are.