There are some important things you can do to help protect yourself from credit identity theft. The first thing is to buy a shredder and use it. A small home or home office shredder can be purchased for under $25. Shred any paperwork that contains any personal or financial information about you and your family before you throw it in the trash or dumpster. A practice known as dumpster diving is the most common way for credit identity theft perpetrators to get hold of your personal information. Yes, they actually go through your garbage or climb in the dumpster and dive through the trash.
To prevent credit identity theft you should shred any receipts for items that you paid for by credit card and any credit card application that you receive in the mail. You should shred all your pay stubs, your bank statements and deposit or withdrawal receipts. Shred your out of date tax returns and your utility bills and payment stubs. You should always shred any paperwork that includes your social security number.
Ask for and carefully view your credit report once a year, from all three major credit reporting bureaus - Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can get your own credit report free of charge once a year.
What you want to look for, that could be an indication of credit identity theft or at least credit identity theft attempts, are an excessive number of credit inquiries. If you can't account for any of these someone might be attempting credit identity theft.
Another cost effective measure to be prepared in case of credit identity theft would be to sign up for prepaid legal services, which would entitle you to less costly attorney services should credit repair be needed.
Source: How to protect yourself
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