Feb
27
These days we should all be concerned about ID theft, so we all need to be taking the appropriate steps to secure our identities. Only you are deeply bothered about making your identity safe, so it is important that you are making use of common sense to ensure you don’t become ID thefts next victim. Another thing to consider is using an protect your identity solution.
Because only you are in control of the security of your identity, you should consider following the below suggestions. You might also want to consider using a identity theft alert plan.
1. Mail security: A lot of personal information is found in your daily mail. Included in this are statements from financial institutions and applications for credit cards which all can assist someone in stealing your identity. You should think about opting out of getting credit card applications and start getting financial institution statements online, so that you eliminate a lot of valuable personal information from the regular mail.
2. Use a debit card in place of credit card: Whenever your debit card is used as a credit card, you are making it more likely to have your account information get into the hands of a criminal. Consider that purchases made with your debit card cause money to almost immediately come out of your bank account, so if your card number is stolen, your bank account could be emptied very quickly. Think about using a real credit card instead since the money isn’t drawn directly from your bank account.
3. Check writing: When you use checks for a purchase, you are putting out your checking account number and routing number for anybody to see. Sometimes this is the only thing that a thief needs to steal your money. Quit writing checks - use a credit card or pay electronically.
4. Temporary credit cards: A lot of banks are offering virtual credit cards. These are issued as a one-time use credit card number that you can use to facilitate purchases like a normal credit card. Using a temporary number keeps the actual credit card numbers away from criminals.
5. Copy personal information: Have a copy of all your banking account numbers, including credit card numbers. You should also keep copies of important documents of personal nature such as your passport and anything else of importance. You will need these copies if you ever lose any of these documents, or if you ever become a victim of identity theft.
By following the tips outlined above, you are well on your way to protecting your identity. One other thing you should consider is to subscribe to a stolen identity protection solution. This will assist in securing your identity so that you are never faced with being a victim of identity theft.