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Identity Theft Doesn’t Care if Your Young or Old

A few years ago Staci and I like tons of other people fell victim to some Identity Theft. We were still young and didn’t think we need to protect anything. Unbeknownst to us, hackers don’t care if you don’t have a wealth of financial assets like 401K, Bonds, Credit Cards, ect. They just wanted to tap into our little checking account and take what little monies we had.

So now we take an active stance of shredding any unneeded mail, or disposable documents with our personal information on it. We are working with Fellowes to educate people on the importance of picking the right shredder for your family, and what you should be shredding.

 First Pick the Right Shredder

8 Things You Should Be Shredding

  1. Old tax returns – As a general rule, you should save your tax returns on the chance you get audited. But after three years, you’re in the clear
  2. Bank statements – Anything with bank account numbers should be shredded, and that obviously includes your paper bank statements.
  3. Credit card offers – Unless you’re going to actually take up the bank on its offer and open an account, you should destroy these mailed offers right away.
  4. Old photo IDs – You wouldn’t want these to get in the wrong hands
  5. Pay stubs – It might not seem so at first glance, but your pay stub is ripe with information that can be used by a skilled identity thief.
  6. Convenience checks – Credit card companies often send so-called “convenience checks” to cardholders, which are basically checks you can use to borrow against your line of credit for quick cash. Needless to say, you don’t want these to end up in the wrong hands.
  7. Canceled checks – Just because you write “void” on it doesn’t mean a canceled check can’t be a ticking time bomb. Remember, your account and routing numbers are listed on the bottom of every check.
  8. Canceled credit cards – Go a head and shred them, you can’t use them.

 

If I can at least do my part in keeping a thief from my important information, then I feel better about me.

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