Twenty Identity Theft Protection Tips for Shredding

Here's a quick update to our holiday
shopping guide to identity theft.

Denying identity thieves your personal
information available from the
trash is one sure way to protect yourself
from identity theft.

Now for a brief list of the 20 types of
documents you will need to shred regularly:

1. Obsolete financial records, including loan
   applications
2. Pre-approved credit card applications
3. Personal medical records or physician statements
4. Correspondence and tax preparation worksheets
5. Receipts for purchases
6. Bank statements
7. ATM receipts
8. Credit card statements
9. Cancelled checks
10. Mail and old records
11. Utility bills
12. Credit card charge receipts
13. Insurance forms
14. Investment transactions
15. Expired charge cards
16. Mailing labels from magazines
17. Pay stubs
18. Old driver's licenses or passports
19. Expired insurance and membership cards
20. Any documents that may contain Social
    Security numbers, birth dates, your mother's
    maiden name and any account numbers or on-line
    passwords

Remember, during the holiday shopping season,
identity thieves understand you will generate
an incremental amount of paper (receipts,
shipping labels, etc.) they can steal from
your trash or from businesses and retail
establishments which may be careless in
their disposal practices during this busy
time of the year.

Our tip for today involves a small bit of
follow up now & after the holidays.

So, take charge of your own identity protection
and make sure to ask for any of your receipts.
Put all of them in a folder to be locked away
in a secure filing cabinet for one month. After
the one month period, reflecting normal return policy
expirations, retrieve that entire stack of receipts
and shred them using a quality, cross-cut shredder.