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For landlords, lenders, courts and caseworkers

Redact a bank statement

Take out the account and routing numbers, and anything the person asking does not need, then check the file before it goes. Nothing is uploaded.

Finds account numbers · Keep the last four · No upload

Getting the tool ready on this device…

Ask what they actually need

People ask for bank statements for very different reasons, and the right redaction follows from the reason. A landlord checking that you can afford the rent usually wants your name, the bank, the dates the statement covers and the deposits coming in. A court or a benefits office may want to see balances. A mortgage lender underwriting a loan often wants every page complete, and may reject one with anything removed. A one-line email asking what they need to see saves sending it twice.

Whatever else changes, two numbers rarely need to travel: the full account number and the routing number. Together they are enough to set up a payment out of your account, which is why they are the first thing to cover on a statement going to somebody you have never met.

The number that repeats

Statements print the account number more than once. It sits in the account summary on the first page, and then again in the header or footer of every page after it, often in smaller type. When people black out statements by hand, that repeated header is what they miss: the first page looks clean, and page three still carries the number in full.

The finder on this page searches every page of the statement at once, so each copy is listed with its page and a little of the text around it. Card numbers are only matched when they pass the same checksum the card networks use, and routing numbers only when they pass the banks’ own check digit, so the list is not buried under balances and reference codes. Mark them all, look over the bars, and export.

Keeping the last four digits

Showing only the last four digits is how statements and receipts identify an account without exposing it: enough to match the statement to your application, not enough to use. Federal court rules ask for financial account numbers in filings to be cut down the same way. The switch in the finder covers everything but the last four, and the bar stops just before them.

Transactions you would rather not share

You can cover individual transactions too: a pharmacy, a legal fee, a payment that is nobody else’s business. Draw a bar over the line, or search for the merchant’s name and mark every occurrence at once. Be sparing. A statement with half its lines blacked out tends to prompt a request for the complete one, and a reviewer who cannot see the deposits cannot confirm your income.

If you only have a paper copy

A photo of a printed statement works: add it as an image and it becomes a page here, with the location and camera details the phone attached removed in the conversion. The finders cannot search a photo, because a photo has no text in it, so draw the bars by hand and check every page by eye. A statement downloaded from online banking is easier, because it has real text that can be searched and checked.

What changes in the file you send

Each page you mark comes back as an image with the bars part of it, so nothing under them survives, and the rest of the text on that page stops being selectable. Pages you do not mark keep their text. The statement’s metadata is removed on the way out, and the report after export lists anything that still looks like an account, card or routing number in the pages that kept their text.

Common questions

Can bank statements be redacted?
Yes. A statement you downloaded is your own document, and you can remove anything from a copy of it before sending it on. What matters is whether the person asking will accept a redacted one. Landlords checking income often only need your name, the bank, the statement period and the deposits; mortgage lenders frequently ask for complete statements and may send a redacted one back. Ask first, then redact exactly what they do not need.
What should I redact on a bank statement?
Usually the full account number and routing number, which together are enough to set up a debit from your account, and any card number printed on it. Keep the last four digits of the account number if the recipient needs to match the statement to an account. Beyond that it depends on the purpose: transactions that reveal medical, legal or personal matters can often be covered too, but a statement with most of its lines blacked out tends to raise more questions than it answers.
How do I black out information on a bank statement?
Open the PDF in the tool on this page. The account, routing and card number finders are already on, so the numbers are listed for every page, including the ones repeated in headers. Mark them, add bars by hand for anything else, and export. The pages you marked are rebuilt as images so the numbers are gone rather than covered, and the report checks that none is left in the text of the other pages.
How do you get a redacted bank statement?
In most cases you make it yourself. Banks generally provide the full statement, through online banking as a PDF or on paper, and leave it to you to decide what to share. Download the PDF rather than photographing a printout where you can, because a downloaded statement has real text that the finders can search, and the export keeps the pages you do not mark as searchable text.