One of the main reasons why people buy paper
shredders is so that they can prevent themselves from becoming victims
of identity theft. If you already have a shredder, you are probably
wondering if you're shredding the right things. What documents need to
be shredded? In a nutshell, anything that has your identifying details
(name, etc.) should be destroyed, along with paper containing financial
information.
One of the main reasons why people buy paper
shredders is so that they can prevent themselves from becoming victims
of identity theft. If you already have a shredder, you're probably
wondering if you're shredding the right things. What documents need to
be shredded? In a nutshell, anything that has your identifying details
(name, etc.) should be destroyed, along with paper containing financial
information. That's kind of a broad definition, so are here are five
specific things you need to shred....
Credit reports. Do you check your credit
report every year and print it out? If so, shred it when you no longer
need it instead of just recycling it. Your credit report is a treasure
trove of information for identity thieves because it contains your name,
address, the names of your creditors, and so on. That's definitely
information you want to keep private. And if you're an employer, you'll
want to shred your employees' credit reports as well. If you don't you
could find your company in violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit
Reporting Act (FACTA) which can lead to lawsuits.
Receipts containing your bank account number.
These items have become less common over the years, but there are still
times when you'll receive a receipt that has this precious piece of
information on it. To be safe, you should shred every receipt you get
for check and credit/debit card transactions. Or, at the very least, you
should look at them before tossing them to be sure there's no account
numbers printed on them.
Tax and legal forms.
After a certain amount of time has passed, you might want to consider
shredding your legal papers and tax forms. Your tax returns contain a
lot of private information including your Social Security number and
details about your income, etc. That's definitely not the kind of
information you want to make available to the public. As for legal
forms, they should definitely be shredded. These include divorce and
adoption papers, bankruptcy forms, paperwork pertaining to a lawsuit,
and so on.
Medical and dental records.
Shredding your medical and dental records is a good idea for a number
of reasons. First, these items could have your Social Security number on
them, as well as your contact information. Also, unless you enjoy
having random people know all about your medical history, shredding
these items just makes sense. (This is especially true if the records
contain information about psychiatric conditions and other highly
personal matters.)
Anything - absolutely anything - containing your signature.
Finally, it's important to shred anything that contains your signature
whether it's a canceled check, a letter, or even a birthday card. It's
pretty easy to forge a signature and if someone does so, you can find
yourself in a heap of trouble. So make sure to run all papers containing
your autograph through your shredder just be on the safe side.
These are all things you should shred to protect your identity in
addition to bank statements, credit cards, offers, etc. Good luck and
happy shredding!
Jeff McRitchie is the Director of Marketing for MyBinding.com.
He regularly writes articles, reviews, and blog posts on topics related
to book binding, laminating, paper shredding, and office equipment.
More than 2,500 of his articles have been published in thousands of
locations on the Internet. If you're looking for information about paper shredders his articles are a great place to start.
