This is how we know he didn't plan this retcon, because he didn't think about the fact that his old credit debt is gone anyway, so there's no reason to believe that that's what he was talking about. He absolutely meant to say that the bank statements include fraudulent charges that he went to the police about, thinking that would add strength to his narrative, and when he realized it didn't, he panicked like usual.
What I'm curious about is WHY he thought he needed to try discrediting the leaked information this way. Like I've said before, it would've sufficed to laugh the leaks off as "made-up nonsense", like he does with so many other things, and just memory-hole that it ever came up. The paypigs would've gone with it, and he knows that. So why go down this dangerous road of trying to play semantics and stay one step ahead of detractors?
My theories: Phil either has too much pride wrapped up in this particular battle, as well as blinded by his inability to recognize that he is horribly outgunned, or he's not convinced that the leaks are going to stop, and is therefore attempting to lay out more groundwork than normal, to deal with what he expects to be future embarrassment.
Of course, that still doesn't answer the question of why he's worried about the paypigs believing that he has been scamming them for years. They know everything, and yet there they are, tipping him. He could fess up to all of it and it would change nothing. But he won't do it. Why?