Identity theft happens every day, but there are ways you can avoid it. One important thing you should do is to shred your important documents instead of throwing away things like bank statements, credit card statements, and other important information. It is common for people to raid bins outside of offices to find personal information of employees and the company itself. By obtaining someone's social security number, they can easily set up a new credit card, and start charging to their heart's desire.  Instead of letting this happen to you, hire a document shredding service or purchase a shredder to dispose of these documents the right way. It is hard to steal something if you cannot read it.

Pre-Approved Credit Card Applications

Many people do not think about shredding pre-approved credit card applications, and toss them in the trash. They may rip it in half one time before they do, but this is not enough. If you do not, someone can steal this, and fill it out themselves. Before you know it, you will find more things added to your credit report and receive calls from creditors asking for money.

Type of Shredder

There are shredders that cut paper into strips. This may be fine for some papers, but not for personal information. Someone could simply tape the strips back together to obtain the information.

The crosscut shredder is much better to use. This is because it cuts the paper in strips, and cuts them across into very small pieces. You can also use a confetti shredder that cuts documents into even smaller pieces.

Shredding Service

There are shredders on the market that you can purchase to shred your documents. If you are a homeowner, this will work well for you. If you have your own business, however, you may want to consider hiring a shredding service company to do this work for you. You likely have a large amount of paperwork you need to shred, and this can take time each day.

Most shredding services can also shred things like circuit boards, DVDs/CDs, microfiche, and much more. Many of them will also recycle the shredded paper, which is beneficial for the environment.

If you have hard drives from old computers, this can be dangerous. Many people have the ability to remove information from these drives. The shredding company you hire may be able to wipe these drives and dispose of them for you.

When you hire a shredding service, they will likely set up a schedule with you for when they will shred your documents. For example, they may shred once per week, or a few times per week.