Atlantic Blog

Shred.

Shredding your paperwork is one of the most important tools at your disposal to protect your identity. The month of May is “shred month” at Atlantic and we encourage our members to shred and shred and shred.

Remember, identity thieves are looking for documents with financial information and/or personal information.  What type of paperwork should you be shredding? 

Obvious documents to shred:

• Any document with your date of birth and Social Security number
• Paperwork with account numbers
• Credit union statements and other financial statements
• Canceled checks and paystubs
• Any online purchase orders that contain your bank account or billing information
• Insurance documents

Not so obvious documents to shred:

• Documents with your personal information such as full name and address, home or work telephone numbers, or driver’s license number
• So-called pre-approved credit card offers
• Any mail you receive from the IRS
• Prescription bottles information
• Junk mail that has a computer barcode on the front that could include personally identifying information

You might need to save things like ATM receipts, receipts for small purchases or groceries and confirm errors were not made.  I keep receipts in 12 monthly envelopes and then shred all receipts older, than 12 months.

Other documentation needs to be kept for a couple of years such as credit card statements, utility bills, cell phone bills, and other similar records.  If you don’t have a system for storing and shredding then now is a good time to start or consider receiving online statements and reduce paper billing.

You can access your Atlantic Federal Credit Union monthly statements through our secure online banking site.  You reduce chances of fraud and identity theft by eliminating a paper trail, plus you can easily access past statements.  E-Statements are not emailed to you. You will receive a monthly email alerting you the statements are ready for viewing online.

For the month of May, we encourage our members to shred away. 

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