Protecting Yourself Against Identity Theft

Thousand of people each day become the victim of identity theft. It is a crime that will require lots of time and money to fix if you become a victim. The best cure is preventing it in the first place. There are a few very effective tips to help you never become the victim of identity theft.

Shred Everything- Every credit card advertisements you receive in the mail should be shredded. But they are not the only things you should shred. Anything that has your name and address on it should also be shredded. Don't forget to shred the labels on magazines you receive, they often have your account numbers printed on them.

Check Your Credit Report- The federal government has passed a law that allows you to receive a free credit report for each of the three credit bureaus once a year. Though this is a good start I believe you should go ahead a check it every three months even though you have to pay for the additional checks yourself. A lot of damage can be done very quickly.

Credit Monitoring Services-There is a lot of companies that you can sign up with that will monitor your credit report for you. They will give you notices, usually through emails that notify you if there are any changes to your report, like someone pulling your credit report, or changing your address. There is a monthly fee associated with these services.

Opt Out Option- If you look at the back of any credit card offer that you receive, you will see there is an opt out option you can sign up for. What this does is notifies the three credit bureaus that you are no longer interested in receiving these types of offers in the mail. It is fast and easy to do and you can either opt out for life or for just five years. It takes a few weeks before you see a complete reduction in your offers. This is very helpful as you will have less mail to shred and no one can steal the offers out of your mailbox.

Freeze Your Credit-This option is not available in all states yet, but what it does is puts a complete freeze on your credit report. No one will be able to run a credit check on you-period. The only down fall to this option is if you need to have a credit check you will have to notify them in advance to unfreeze your report. There is also a small fee for each time you freeze and unfreeze your report.

If you become a victim of identify theft, it can be devastating. It will literally take years to fix the damage done by the thieves. Hopefully, these tips will be very useful for you. And remember the old adage "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

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