How to share a bank statement without giving away your account number

A landlord wants proof of income. A visa application asks for three months of statements. A lender wants to see your spending. Each time, you're asked to hand over a document that also contains your account number, your card number, your address history and every shop, person and subscription you've paid.

You can usually share what they need without sharing all of that.

What the recipient usually needs

Before hiding anything, work out what the request is actually for. Common cases:

• Proof of income (renting, some job checks): your name, the bank's name, the statement period, and the salary or income credits.
• Proof of funds (visas, some purchases): your name, the bank's name, the dates, and the balance.
• Affordability checks (loans, mortgages): often the full transaction history, because the lender is assessing spending. Ask before hiding transactions, since a heavily redacted statement may be rejected.

If you're unsure, ask the recipient what they'll check. A short question now saves a resubmission later.

What you can usually hide

• Your full account number. Many recipients accept the last four digits.
• Bank routing details: the US routing number, UK sort code, IBAN and BIC, or Indian IFSC code.
• Card numbers shown next to card payments.
• Other people's names in transfers to and from friends or family.
• Unrelated transactions, where the recipient only needs income or a balance.
• Customer or reference numbers that could be used to contact your bank as you.

Keep your name, the bank's name and the dates visible. Without them, most recipients can't use the statement.

How to hide it properly

The mistake to avoid is drawing a black box over the number in a PDF editor or annotation tool. The box sits on top of the text, which is still in the file and can be copied, searched or uncovered. We explain why in a black box is not a redaction.

1. Save a copy. Keep the original as it is, and work on a copy with a clear name.
2. Use a real redaction tool, one that removes the content or rebuilds the page.
3. Find every instance. Account numbers often appear in the header, the footer and on every page. Search for the last four digits.
4. Check the result. Select all, copy, and paste into a plain text note. If you can read anything you hid, so can the recipient. Our guide to redacting a PDF properly covers the full check.

Should you upload it to an online tool?

Free online redaction tools work, but they need the unredacted statement uploaded first. Most say they delete files within one to two hours. Whether that's acceptable for your bank statement is your call. We compare the options in online redaction tools: what happens to your file.

Where Ombly fits

Ombly is built for exactly this. It finds account numbers, IBANs, card numbers, names and phone numbers on every page, lets you choose what to hide, and rebuilds the statement from pixels on your own computer, so nothing is left to copy. Join the waitlist to try it first.