If you’ve ever had your identity stolen, it’s an experience that you never want to go through again. Seeing your credit score tank, the hassle of canceling cards, freezing your credit, and working to rebuild that precious score can be stressful and frustrating. Taking preventative security measures to protect your identity can be an easier route than having to repair the damage once it’s done, and that includes document shredding.
More than 1.1 million Americans reported identity theft in 2024 through the FTC Identity Theft website, costing Americans an estimated $47 billion, according to AARP. Identity theft in America is a growing problem, as the cost and number of people that identity theft has impacted grew by $4 billion and 18 million more people compared to the previous year.
While it’s difficult to guarantee 100% protection across all avenues an identity thief may take, document shredding is an important safeguard. Businesses take great care in shredding documents that may put them at risk for fraud and even have state and federal laws mandating shredding for certain documents, protecting both customers and them. It’s important to be just as careful with sensitive documents in our personal lives, too.
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Many documents contain sensitive personal information like your name, address, insurance, banking, medical, employment history and social security number. Take a look at what you receive in your mailbox this week and count how many papers include information that you wouldn’t want anyone to get ahold of. You won’t want to simply toss these papers in the trash or recycling.
Identity thieves who go dumpster diving and sift through recycling bins are looking for papers with this information that they can use to open accounts, take over your accounts, sell your information on the dark web and use your credit – yikes!
Credit card companies mail offers that make it even easier for thieves to open a credit card in your name if they come across it in the dumpster or recycling. It becomes your responsibility to make sure these sensitive papers are shredded and inaccessible to thieves when you’re ready to discard them.
Likewise, you should shred financial statements, debit card bills, pay stubs and tax records, since they may contain personal information that you want to keep secured, like your account number, address, and employee number.
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Financial documents aren’t the only thing that should be shredded to protect your identity. Other types of papers with sensitive information include medical records, utility bills, prescription labels and insurance policies. It’s best to peel off the prescription label from pill bottles before disposing them in the trash, as it contains your name, sensitive medical information and the name of your doctor.
It’s also important to shred personal identification including expired passports, driver’s licenses and IDs that you wouldn’t want someone to get ahold of. The same goes for copies of birth certificates. Of course, original documents and updated IDs should be safely stored. But once they expire it becomes more of a liability to hold onto them.
It’s common for people to store documents with sensitive personal information, keeping them just in case they’ll need to reference something later. It’s important to remember that you’ll need to protect these documents, even in your own home. Keep sensitive documents locked up in a file cabinet where they can’t be accessed by someone who comes across them with bad intentions. When you’re comfortable discarding the papers, shred them! Shredding the documents eliminates the possibility that someone can get ahold of them for identity theft.
When deciding when to shred the documents you’ve been holding onto, know that most documents that you’re thinking about keeping can be shredded within a year, like medical bills and pay stubs. Others can be shredded at seven years, as most documents become expired and outdated after this time.
When you’re ready to shred your documents, the safest way is to purchase a paper shredder for your home. Paper shredders are much more affordable than getting your identity stolen and can be found in stores and online for less than $75.
If you don’t have a shredder at home and are looking for where to shred documents near you, search for a community shred event or recycle, reduce, reuse event, where residents can bring their sensitive documents to be shredded for free. There are also document shredding services available at select UPS stores.
Types of documents that should be shredded:
- Bank statements
- Credit card bills
- Debit card bills
- Credit reports
- Financial statements
- Credit card offers
- Tax records
- Pay stubs
- Medical bills
- Utility bills
- Shipping labels
- Resumes
- Canceled and voided checks
- Expired Passports, driver’s licenses and IDs
- Copies of birth certificates
- Expired insurance policies
- Used airline tickets
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