To convert 2 years of bank statements at the lowest cost, count the 24 PDFs and their page counts first, then buy five bundles of five. At early pricing that is $49.95 for all 24 statements, against $71.76 as small singles. Free short months and very long months both change the total, so sort the files before you pay.
How do 24 statements split into bundles?
Twenty-four statements split best into five bundles, which cover 25 slots for $49.95. Four bundles plus four singles look tighter, but four small singles cost $11.96, more than a fifth bundle at $9.99. So the cheapest plan for a full two years leaves one bundle slot empty.
CheapBankConvert charges per document, and its homepage lists early prices that may change before launch. A file of up to 10 pages is $2.99. A file of 11 to 40 pages is $5.99. Five files of any size up to 40 pages go together for $9.99, and that bundle can mix both sizes. Before any of that, the first 2 pages of each statement are a free preview, so a two-page month never costs anything.
The table compares the ways to pay for 24 statements of up to 10 pages each. The totals come from the early prices and are examples, not quotes.
| Option | How it adds up | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 24 small singles | 24 × $2.99 | $71.76 |
| 4 bundles + 4 singles | 4 × $9.99 + 4 × $2.99 | $51.92 |
| 5 bundles | 5 × $9.99 (25 slots, 24 used) | $49.95 |
The spare slot is the price of the cheapest route. It is worth checking whether a 25th file belongs in the job. A second account, a card statement or an extra month at either end of the period could fill it at no extra cost.
The rule behind the split
A bundle beats singles once you have four or more statements left over. Three small singles cost $8.97, under the bundle price, so they win. Four cost $11.96, over it, so the bundle wins. Apply that to any count: fill whole bundles, look at the remainder, and buy one more bundle if four or more files are left.
Free and long months across 2 years of statements
Short and long months pull the 24-file total in opposite directions. Each statement of 2 pages or fewer drops out of the count and costs nothing. Each statement over 10 pages costs $5.99 as a single, but nothing extra inside a bundle. Sort the two years into three piles by page count before you choose a plan.
Here is a worked example with illustrative page counts:
| Example mix over 24 months | Paid files | Cheapest plan | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| All 24 between 3 and 10 pages | 24 | 5 bundles | $49.95 |
| 3 months at 2 pages, 21 at 3 to 10 pages | 21 | 4 bundles + 1 single | $42.95 |
| All 24 between 11 and 40 pages | 24 | 5 bundles | $49.95 |
The third row shows why bundles matter most for a busy account. Twenty-four larger singles would cost $143.76. In bundles they cost the same $49.95 as small ones, because the bundle price does not change with page count up to 40 pages.
When some months are long and some are short, put the long ones inside bundles and leave the short ones for singles. A single is priced by its size, so a 12-page month costs $5.99 alone and a 4-page month costs $2.99. Let the bundle carry the expensive file.
One limit to know: the early pricing lists no tier above 40 pages. A business account with heavy daily activity can produce a statement past that. Check the longest file in each year before you plan around bundles.
Gathering 24 statement PDFs before you pay for any
Gather every statement into one folder, name each by year and month, and confirm the count is 24 before you spend anything. Most banks keep past statements in the statements or documents area of online banking. Some keep fewer than two years online, so check early.
A gathering checklist that works for most banks:
- Make one folder for the account, and a second one if a second account is part of the request.
- Download each monthly PDF and rename it with the year and month first, such as
2025-03-checking.pdf. - Sort the folder by name and count the files. You want 24 per account.
- Open each file and confirm the statement period in the header matches its name.
- Note the page count of each file in a short list. This list sets the price.
- Flag any month that is missing, scanned, or a different file type.
Expect gaps. A bank may change its statement format partway through the two years, an account may have been opened or closed inside the period, or a month may have been downloaded twice under different names. A duplicate costs a bundle slot for nothing, so the count in step 3 matters.
Requests for two years of records often come from lenders or tax preparers, and they tend to want income records too. Payslips are a separate document with their own layout. The guide to getting payslip figures into a spreadsheet covers those, so you do not try to push them through a statement converter.
If one of the accounts is a savings account, its statements may be short enough to convert free. Turning a savings account statement into Excel explains which lines to keep from those quiet months.
Older statements in a 2-year request: paper, closed accounts, archives
The oldest year is the hardest part of a two-year request. Statements that have rolled out of online banking, accounts you have since closed, and months you only received on paper all need a different route. Each one costs time, and some cost a bank fee, so start on them first.
There are three usual cases:
- Rolled out of online banking. Ask the bank for copies through secure message, phone or a branch. Some banks charge for older copies and some do not, so ask before you order.
- A closed account. The bank still has the records, but you lose your online login. You will usually need to request copies directly.
- Paper only. If the only copy is the paper statement in a drawer, you can scan it. A scan is an image, not text, and it needs more checking after conversion.
The homepage says CheapBankConvert is built for most text-based PDF statements, and a scan is not one. Asking the bank for a downloaded PDF is often the better path. If you must scan, read the guide to scanning bank statements into Excel first. It covers scan settings and how a photo of a page goes wrong.
Mixed sources are fine as long as the months join up. After conversion, the closing balance of each month should equal the opening balance of the next one, across all 24 months. A break shows you exactly which month to look at again.
Two-year statement mistake: buying bundles before counting files
The costly mistake is buying bundles first and counting later. If the final count is 21 rather than 24, five bundles cost $49.95 when four bundles and one single would have cost $42.95. If the count is 26, you need a sixth bundle or a single on top. Count first, then pay once.
The count often changes for small reasons:
- Free months. A quiet month at 2 pages or fewer drops out of the paid count.
- Missing months. A month you cannot get from the bank yet should not take a slot until you have the file.
- Duplicates. The same month downloaded twice under two names takes two slots unless you catch it.
- Overlap with a request you already filled. If you sent the last 12 months to someone last year, you may already have half the job converted.
The same arithmetic holds for any long stack. Write down the page count of every file, mark which are free, count the rest, and then work out bundles. The price check on the homepage runs that sum for a count and a page size.
A second account is the other place the count moves. If the request covers checking and savings, that is up to 48 files, not 24. Price each account on its own first, then together, because shared bundles can absorb the leftovers of both.
Is a 2-year stack worth converting at all?
A two-year stack is worth converting when someone needs line-level detail: every transaction, sortable, summed by category or month. If the requester only wants the PDFs, send the PDFs and convert nothing. If your bank can export transactions to CSV for the whole period, that export may cost nothing.
There are three cheaper alternatives to check first:
- Send the PDFs as they are. Many lenders and landlords want the statements themselves, not a spreadsheet. Converting is only for your own analysis.
- Use the bank's own export. Some banks let you download transactions as a CSV for a date range. Check how far back the export goes; it is often shorter than the statement archive.
- Use only the totals. If the job needs monthly deposit totals, you can read 24 numbers off the statement summaries in less time than any conversion.
Converting wins when you need to search, sort or categorize every line, such as for a tax catch-up, a dispute, or a budget review over two years. Then the cost is about $2.08 per statement in bundles, and the rows arrive with their running balance.
If you are converting statements for a small business or for clients, check that the tool you use allows that. The guide to free PDF converters and commercial use explains how free tools restrict business files, and why that matters for a stack this size.
When your 24 files are counted and sorted, Get started with CheapBankConvert to be emailed when you can convert them. It is getting ready to open, and the prices above are early pricing.