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You lock all the doors of your house, you roll up the windows and lock your car, and you keep your wallet or purse on you when you are out in public. Why would you leave personal, financial information exposed and vulnerable?

Shredding is an important precaution to take to help prevent identity theft, which is continues to rise steadily year after year. It doesn't matter where you live or work, what school your children attend or what kind of car you drive, identity theft can happen to anyone.

WHY YOU SHOULD SHRED

Identity thieves use personal information to access existing accounts and to open new, fraudulent accounts in someone else's name. Some thieves sell the identification info to other ID thieves.

Victims have had bank accounts wiped out, had tickets and arrest warrants issued in their name when someone else used their license, had collection agencies start hounding them for accounts they never opened or used, and have found out that they had a delinquent mortgage in another state where they never lived.

While federal law states that, in most cases, an identity theft victim is not responsible for more than $50 in fraudulent charges on their accounts, many victims spend vast amounts of time and money trying to clear their name and restore their credit rating.

WHAT TO SHRED

Almost everything. All paper and envelopes with your name, address, any account numbers, and, certainly, your social security number on it should be shredded. This lists includes:

Solicitations for pre-approved offers

Bank statements

Credit card statements

Credit card "convenience" checks

Car loan paperwork

Mortgage and Home-Equity loan paperwork

Utility bills including cell phones and cable

Subscription notices

Medical bills and statements

Pay stubs

Insurance statements

Old tax records

Expired credit cards

Store and gasoline credit card statements

Address label from magazines and catalogs

Order form label inside catalogs, often with a pre-approved offer

Membership rosters from clubs, schools and organizations that show each person's name, address and even birth date

HOW TO SHRED

A cross-cut shredder is effective for making your personal information almost impossible to reassemble and read. A decent cross-cut machine can be found at most office supply stores for under $50. You can put the shredded material into two separate bags for disposal and put them in the trash can at different times to further limit any theft possibilities.

Doing the shredding while you open the mail might be more convenient. Or using an empty manila envelope to collect all the shredding and then taking 10 minutes each week to shred it might be easier. Just be sure to consistently shred your personal and financial information to help prevent identity theft.

Learn more about this author, Dana Coyle.
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