UK
The covering email is the authority, not this page. Banks change these rules without announcing it, and published lists (including ours) disagree with each other. Treat what follows as the patterns worth trying, in order.
How to open a locked statement
- Open the email or SMS the statement arrived with — it states the password rule the bank used.
- Type the password exactly as described: no spaces, and lower case unless the bank says otherwise.
- If it's rejected, try the alternatives listed for your bank below — the same bank often uses different rules for net banking, app and emailed statements.
- To convert it, upload the locked PDF as it is. You'll be asked for the password, it unlocks the file in your browser, and it's never sent to us.
Where each United Kingdom bank keeps your statement
Downloading a fresh copy is usually quicker than hunting for a password. These are the routes to a statement PDF for the United Kingdom banks we support.
Allica Bank
Allica online banking → the account → Statements → select the period → Download PDF.
Allica serves established SMEs, so statements often cover business savings and lending accounts as well as current accounts.
ANNA Money
ANNA app → Account → Statements → choose the date range → Download.
ANNA is aimed at freelancers and small limited companies, so its statements are frequently exported alongside the receipts it stores against transactions.
Bank of Scotland
Online Banking or the app, under Statements
Bank of Scotland is part of Lloyds Banking Group, so its statement layout closely matches Lloyds and Halifax.
Barclays
Online Banking → the account → Statements and documents → pick a period → Download PDF. In the app it's under the account's Statements tab.
Barclays keeps PDF statements in a documents area rather than generating them on demand, so older months are already filed and ready to download.
Cashplus
Cashplus online or app → the account → Statements → choose a month → Download.
Cashplus is a card-led business account, so statements are dominated by card transactions rather than Direct Debits and standing orders.
Chase UK
In the Chase app → the account → Statements → choose a month → share or save the PDF.
Chase UK is app-only, so statements are generated in-app per calendar month rather than through a web banking portal.
first direct
Online Banking → My accounts → Statements → choose the period → Download PDF.
first direct runs on HSBC infrastructure, so its statement layout and download flow closely mirror HSBC UK's.
Halifax
Online Banking or the app, under Statements
Halifax sits inside Lloyds Banking Group, so its statements look a lot like Lloyds and Bank of Scotland ones.
HSBC UK
Online Banking → select the account → Statements → choose the month → Download as PDF.
HSBC is one of the few UK providers that emails statements as password-protected PDFs when you opt into eStatements, so a locked file from HSBC is normal rather than a mistake.
Lloyds
Internet Banking or the mobile app, under Statements
Lloyds is one of the big four UK high-street banks and part of Lloyds Banking Group, which also runs Halifax and Bank of Scotland.
Mettle
Mettle app → the account → Statements → pick the month → Download PDF.
Mettle is NatWest's free business account and is app-first, so statements are produced in the app rather than a desktop portal.
Monzo
the app, under Account → Statements
Monzo is an app-only bank with no branches, so the PDF statement comes out of the phone app rather than a website.
Nationwide
the Internet Bank or the Banking app, under Statements
Nationwide is the UK's biggest building society, owned by its members rather than shareholders.
NatWest
Online Banking or the app, under View statements
NatWest is a long-standing UK high-street bank and part of the NatWest Group, alongside Royal Bank of Scotland.
Revolut
the app, under Documents → Statements
Revolut started as a money app and now offers full bank accounts in the UK; statements come straight out of the app.
Santander
Online Banking, under the account's Statements & documents
Santander UK is the British arm of the Spanish Santander group and a familiar high-street name here.
Starling
the app, under the account's Statements (web banking has them too)
Starling is an app-based bank that also offers a web login, and it's popular with sole traders and small businesses.
Tide
Tide app or web → Balances / the account → Statements → set the date range → Download.
Tide is a business account provider, so statements are commonly pulled for a custom date range to match an accounting period rather than a calendar month.
TSB
Internet Banking or the app, under Statements
TSB split from Lloyds in 2013 and is now owned by Sabadell, but it kept the traditional high-street branch model.
Virgin Money
Internet Banking → the account → Statements → select a month → Download PDF.
Virgin Money has merged several legacy brands, so older statements may carry Clydesdale or Yorkshire Bank layouts depending on when the account was opened.
Wise
Wise → Balances → the currency → Statements → choose the period and format → Download PDF.
Wise holds separate balances per currency, so a statement covers one currency at a time and multi-currency accounts produce several files.
Where the password comes from
Because United Kingdombanks don't lock statements by default, there is no per-bank password rule to look up. A protected file almost always came from a person or a system rather than from your bank's download page — an emailed credit-card statement, a broker's mortgage pack, or a file an accountant forwarded. Whoever sent it chose the password, and the message it arrived with will say what it is.
If you can't find it, the quickest route is to sign in to online banking and download the statement again. Self-service downloads are unprotected, and you'll have a clean file in under a minute.
Converting without removing the password
Most converters tell you to strip the password in Acrobat or Preview first. That extra step has a cost: re-saving a PDF that way frequently rasterises the text layer, so a statement that would have extracted cleanly has to be read by OCR instead. Upload the locked file as it is — the password unlocks it in your browser, the original text layer survives, and every transaction still goes through the reconciliation check before you download anything.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to remove the password before converting?expand_more
No. Upload the locked PDF exactly as the bank sent it. You'll be asked for the password and the file is unlocked in your browser — the password never reaches our servers. Re-saving a PDF to strip the password often flattens the text into an image, which makes extraction harder rather than easier.
I don't know the password — can you recover it?expand_more
No. The password is set by your bank and we can't recover or bypass it. Check the email or SMS the statement arrived with, which nearly always states the format. Otherwise download a fresh copy from online banking, which is usually unlocked.
The format listed here didn't work. What now?expand_more
Try the alternatives listed for your bank. Banks change these rules without notice and often use different ones for net banking, the mobile app and emailed statements, so no published list is authoritative — the covering email is.
