|
Do you throw away your ATM receipts?
Think about it. You get sixty bucks out of checking to buy dinner for the night. The machine isn’t one of those advanced ones that asks whether you want a receipt – it just gives you one. You take a quick look at your balance – then what?
- Do you do what so many others do, and toss it into the trash can next to the ATM?
- Do you stick it in your wallet, only to take it out later (along with two months’ worth of receipts) and toss it in the trash can at home?
- Do you take it home and throw it into the bin labeled “SHREDDING?”
Not all of us are as vigilant about shredding as we should be. We throw out restaurant receipts, bank statements and old bills instead of shredding them. We toss important documents out with the trash – again, instead of shredding them. For most of us, document destruction just isn’t something we think about.
So, what should you put in that shredding pile? At the end of every month, what should you feed into the shredder? Here’s a quick primer in document destruction.
Shredding. Shredding is just about the most important thing you can do with your old documents – throwing them out just isn’t enough. In a landmark 1998 Fourth Amendment case, the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that garbage, after it’s put out to the curb for pickup, is not protected by Constitutionally-guaranteed privacy – meaning just about anyone can rifle through your garbage. This, incidentally, is one of the favorite pastimes of identity thieves.
Shredders. Shredding isn’t impossible without a quality shredder, but it is a lot easier. Sure, you could spend a couple of hours each month tearing your bills into tiny pieces, but buying a shredder is a good investment that’ll save you a lot of time. Do plenty of research to find the shredding machine that’s right for you – look at details like shredding speed and the width of the feeder slot – but be sure to buy a cross-cut shredder. Not only do these provide an extra level of security by cutting the paper along two axes (instead of the single-axis cut provided by strip-cut shredders), they leave you with a pile of smaller particles that are easier to compact and throw away (or, we hope, send to the recycle bin).
What to put in the “shredding” pile. Here’s the golden rule for shredding. You may want to write this down.
If you’ve read it, shred it.
That means everything. Anything that might contain your social security number, your address or account numbers, your credit score or medical histories. Here’s a short list of things to toss in the shredder:
- ATM receipts
- Bank statements
- Utility bills
- Tax forms
- Employee pay stubs
- Canceled checks
- Insurance documents
- Expired identification cards
- Pre-approved credit card applications
- Any document with a signature
- School transcripts
- Birth certificates
- Legal documents
Shredding Services. If you’re an entrepreneur or own your own business, you might have too much material for a simple home shredder to handle. And if you have access to client data, you may be required by law to hire a document destruction firm to do the work for you. These companies use giant industrial shredders to devour papers, staples, rubber bands and file folders. The best ones provide a certificate of document destruction and a video record of the process.
Shredding is one of the easiest and surest ways to prevent identity theft. Along with regular hard drive purges and a good firewall, it’s the best defense you can provide for yourself.
|
