A List For The Shredder - Protecting Against Identity Theft
We spent some time this past weekend cleaning out our home office. Most of the project was spring cleaning and a little bit of simplifying (i.e. getting rid of stuff that had accumulated). A lot of stuff we simply threw away and some things that are still in useable condition will be donated. However, we have a large amount of financial and personal information that can be tossed, but we will be shredding it and not disposing of it in the trash.
Identity thieves are constantly on the prowl for personal financial information. Just yesterday I wrote about protecting yourself when using a copier, and you need to take as many precautions as possible. This includes protecting personal information such as name, address, phone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers, etc. We’ve made it a habit to shred all material that has any personal information on it. Here is a list of items that we shred:
1. Credit card offers that we receive in the mail. Don’t want these falling into the wrong hands. Same thing for all those home equity line offers we receive.
2. Medical bills and/or medical benefit summaries. Many times these medical bills or benefit statements contain social security numbers and/or other private financial information. Make sure you shred all information with your children’s information as well. Identity thieves are targeting the social security numbers of children, because it is usually a long time before their crime is discovered.
3. Store receipts that contain credit card or debit card information. Even though most of these only show partial numbers, we shred them anyway.
4. Old bank statements. We keep bank statements for one year and then shred the older statements.
5. Old mutual fund reports. These reports are kept for one year and then shredded. Of course, anything that is tax related stays with the tax file which is not disposed of.
6. Old 401K statements. Same as the above documents. We keep these for one year (year end summaries are kept longer because we like to compare year to year increases). Anything older than one year heads to the shredder.
7. Old paycheck stubs. Anything older than one year goes to the shredder.
don’t forget the mail order catalogs you get, shred the order forms inside of them if they have your address automatically printed on them. also, cut or tear the name and address off of your magazines to shred.
you should also shred anything that has your name and address on it on the junk mailers. they can have the order forms for whatever automatically listed on the forms.
you can also can request to OPTOUT from the credit bureaus. You can also call your bank or credit card company to tell them to not send you pre-approved credit card applications.
and make sure you get a good cross cut shredder. I have a ROYAL CIA12, which are hard to find, but haven’t found anything close to it in terms of performance. but in the end, something is better than nothing regarding shredders, just buy a cross cut one.
if you have burned floppy/zip/cd/dvd’s dont’ forget to crack them up or shred them, too, if you have used them to store personal info. if you sell your computer, either buy a new HD to put in it, or get a shredder/wiper program to wipe the old drive before you sell it.
Great ideas! I hadn’t thought about the mail order catalog with the pre-printed order forms.