Identity Theft Protection How to Guard Personal Information

Perhaps you have heard of horror stories about people s identities being stolen. Usually these stories involve getting a hold of their personal information such as your social security number or having access through your credit card account. The truth is you do not have to live in fear that your identity might get stolen. The best way to do this is to plan out a good identity theft protection plan and educate yourself on how to safeguard personal information to keep it from being accessed by dishonest people.

If you need some tips on how to do just that, then here are several ideas on how to safeguard your personal information and to protect yourself against identity thieves:


1. Personal Documents, this includes your bank statements, invoices, tax returns, credit card bills and mortgage documents. You must make sure that your personal documents are hidden from plain sight in your home or in your office. When you pay your bills at the bank, make sure that you don t let these papers lying around for everyone to view your personal information. If you don't need these papers anymore, make use of a shredder and shred the paper into pieces. Do not dispose of these personal documents without doing so because other people might get a hold of it and use your personal information for their own gain.

2. Social Security Number, this is a set of numbers that most companies ask from their clients who would like to open accounts. You can apply for credit cards, loans and open bank accounts using this set of numbers. That is why it is important that you don t give this out to just about anyone.

3. Password this may be for your computer, the PIN on your ATM account or your password for your email. Do not write your password on a piece of paper and keep it in obvious places like your wallet or desk drawer.

Memorize your password and personal identification number as part of your identity theft protection.

Also, do not use obvious words and numbers like your name or a loved one s name, your birthday and anniversary dates. For passwords, use a combination of numbers and letters to make it more difficult to guess.

4. Credit Report this tells your credit history and recent activities. You can check your credit report through the credit bureaus or monitoring services that you have through your credit card or bank. By monitoring your credit, you will see if there are fraudulent accounts or loans made in your name and you can report this false information immediately.

5. Credit Cards there are many ways that identity thieves can use to access your credit card. That is why you need to make sure that you only shop on secured websites and make sure that nobody gets a hold of your credit card number. If your credit card is stolen, report it immediately to your credit card company to avoid fraudulent transactions from taking place and then ask for a different card number.

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