Trash or Treasure? Why You Should Shred

One man's trash is another man's treasure, at least this is what we're led to believe if we choose to live by old wives' tales. To think of "treasure" in a trash can, though, one might first picture an object that's been thrown away like used furniture or an old toy that can be refurbished. You might not imagine that a discarded bank or credit card statement could be considered treasure to some. In truth, it offers a goldmine to identity thieves, but the personal information provides them with a means to steal your name, reputation, and money.

When you carelessly toss away personal documents - regardless of how worthless they appear to you - it is important to make sure the words printed there are completely illegible. You need to do this in order to protect your identity, your credit score, and anything that identifies with you. Why? Even with a simple bank statement, an identity thief can glean enough information to cause you trouble.

Consider this: if you were to toss away your trash without shredding the important documents thoroughly, somebody can pick up the papers and try to assume your name. If said thief knows of a way to obtain credit through a store or bank using what information you provided in the trash, that thief can get a card and start charging up a hefty debt. The bills, of course, go to you, and the onus is on you to prove that you are the victim.

Identity thieves cannot operate if you give them no ammunition, so before you make that trip to the recycling center consider instead a call to your local shredding service. Whether you work for yourself or have collected financial data over the years, you need a sound system for destroying receipts, statements, and unused credit cards.

Mobile shredding provides the best option for identity protection in that the shredding services comes to your home or place of business and handles the document destruction, and you can watch the process for yourself to confirm. Find a service where the employees are bonded, one recommended by friends or colleagues. Most reputable shredding services, will recycle the refuse for you, leaving you with the peace of mind that nobody else will see this information.

Don't let your trash bring treasure to an identity thief. Take precautions to properly shred your documents so you and your family remain safe.


Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Virginia Beach shredding services and Charlotte shredding services.

Is Mobile Shredding the Best Solution?

When you think of shredding documents to keep your identity and financial records safe, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a small device for the home office. Perhaps it connects to a waste basket that collects all the paper strips, and you use it once or twice a month when you clean out your invalid and expired financial papers and statements. Afterward, maybe you divide the paper ribbons into smaller piles so as to further ensure your security, and either throw everything away or have it recycled. This is one good way to help keep your information - like your Social Security number and your bank accounts - away from curious eyes, but is it really the best solution for you?

These days, smaller businesses and individuals with large amounts of paper to shred have turned to mobile shredding services to clear the clutter and protect their interests. In just minutes, a mobile shredder can destroy several file boxes of paper and even hardware like USB drives, floppy discs, and removable hard drives. The more you have going to a shredder, the better your name and financial situation is protected. Companies with mobile options for destruction offer perhaps the most sound and secure services.

Why is this so? Let's consider the process of shredding. If you were to go to a shredding business in town, you'll have to pack your and make sure everything in there. You run the risk of a paper or two sliding out into your car or the street, where it can be easily picked up and used for dubious purposes. A mobile service, by contrast, comes to you. A large truck using state of the art equipment drives to your place of business or home, and a bonded employee handles your items.

You witness the actual destruction of your refuse. The mobile service that comes to your home or workplace typically has state of the art shredding equipment inside, so your paper doesn't go anywhere else. The service usually gives you certification of the shredding, and what is left over is taken to be recycled and seen by nobody else. Your bank account numbers, employee and medical records, and other sensitive data is secured.

Mobile shredding offers you the peace of mind that the risk of identity theft is greatly decreased for you. Consider calling a reputable service in your area today to handle your document destruction.


Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Virginia Beach shredding services and Richmond shredding services.

What Needs to Be Shredded? Take Care of Your Identity's Safety

When you have the opportunity to take your personal documents to be shredded, you can decrease the risk of having your identity stolen by thieves who will apply for credit cards in your name. It is important to ensure that none of your important papers with personal information are made available to people who may try to take advantage of you. Therefore, when you meet with a professional shredding service, here are the top items to have ready for destruction.

Cancelled Checks - After you have reconciled payments from your checking account, shred the checks that come back to you - if your bank still does this. Don't leave any trace of your checking account number behind.

Pre-approval Mail from Credit Card Companies - We may be inclined to throw out that envelope that screams how we are pre-approved for credit. If you throw it out whole, somebody could fill out that application and get a card in your name. Don't take that chance.

Expired Credit Cards - Leave one behind and somebody could try to use it to steal your identity.

Medical Records - These records contain your life health history and other private information. Some things do not need to be made public.

Storage Data - Anything you have used to keep personal information - USB drives, cassettes, floppy discs, and even microfilm - should be destroyed if it's no longer used.

Work-Related Documents - These may include payroll reports, employees records, accounting records, contracts, and proposals for projects. Anything considered exclusive and confidential should be shredded if they are no longer relevant to your needs.

Inventory Records - If you maintain a warehouse, an inventory list can assist in thief in knowing what to take from you. What records you do not need, seal them away or have them destroyed.

Legal Documents - Leases, contracts, outdated wills are among the legal documents you should shred if you no longer need them.

Correspondence - Letters, faxes, and e-mails saved to a disc reveal more personal information than an identity thief needs to know about you. If you have no reason to keep the letters in a safe place (for sentimentality), take them to a shredder.

Once you rid your home or office space of the paper clutter, you reduce the risk of somebody finding your information and using it to their advantage. Thieves are clever when it comes to stealing identities, so don't give one an easy ticket.


Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Newport News shredding and South Carolina shredding.

Clear Away the Paper Clutter Before the Holidays

The one advantage Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach businesses enjoy when it comes to getting rid of outdated paperwork is that the best shredding company in town is available to help, even during holiday crunches. As we head into November and December, businesses are preparing year-end reports and no doubt staring down mountains of invalid paperwork and records, unused hard drives and other materials that have outlived their usefulness. What better holiday gift can a Norfolk or Virginia Beach company give to themselves than the assistance of a Shred-It truck and a certified shredding professional?

If you need shredding in Virginia Beach done, or are cleaning house in Norfolk office and need to get rid of boxes of dated receipts and records, call on us today at 757-727-0177. We'll come to you with our state of the art shredding equipment and make sure everything is destroyed beyond recognition. You won't have to worry about losing important account numbers or identity theft - we guarantee the security of your business.

Moving a Business Requires Document Shredding

There may come a time when, if your business has outgrown the offices you've enjoyed for many years, you must contemplate relocating to another complex. You gain employees or inventory, and require more space to breathe and work properly. It happens, and while this is a positive sign for your future the idea of having to pack everything and lug it somewhere else proves a monster headache. Luckily, this presents the ideal time to clean house, and dispose of outdated materials.

As you prepare to relocate your offices, you know it's important to contact different people. The post office must be informed to forward mail. Clients and advertising sources have to note the new address, and of course you need movers. As you go down the contact list, be sure to add a quality document shredder that specializes in bulk paper and hard drive destruction. You will find shredding before you move takes some pressure off your employees during the transition. There is less to move, and you have the opportunity to witness a secure method of document destruction that protects yourself, your workers, and your customers.

When you settle on a moving date, plan to arrange a mass shredding of unused and stored data about a week before you leave. Choose a company that is licensed and bonded, with truck-mounted equipment that comes to you, so you don't have to double your work load. A reputable shredder will allow you to watch every step in the process and present you with documentation confirming your materials are no longer usable.

Moving presents not only the chance to grow, but to clean house. Add document shredding to your list of to-do's before you relocate.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Norfolk shredding and South Carolina shredding.

How to Prepare Your Office For Data Shredding

As a business owner, you understand the necessity of shredding outdated and sensitive information to keep your company, and your clients, safe from identity thieves. Perhaps you have taken that first important step in contacting a professional shredder to handle document and hard drive destruction. This is a good move, in that it helps ensure that your materials will be properly disposed of, with the paper recycled beyond original recognition. With the appointment made, now, you need only prepare for the actual event.
Here are a few tips to ensure your shredding goes smoothly.

Gather everything ahead of time. Don't wait until the day of the shredding to get the material together. Some professional shredders may visit more than one business in a day, and may work on tight schedules. Give yourself time to collect everything that needs to go and place the material in a safe place.

Sort your material. When you make an appointment with a shredding company, you may receive information on what can and cannot be destroyed by their equipment. If you have hard drives and floppy disks in addition to paperwork, you may wish to keep things separate to accommodate the shredder. Some shred machines may not take binder clips or brads, so you want to make certain these are removed so equipment is not damaged.

Check with your employees. Have your workers do routine checks to clear away the clutter - this is a good practice, too, for security of your company and clientele. Should ever an employee leave, you want to ensure all proprietary data is left behind and, if needed, destroyed.

The more thorough you are in preparing your office for a shredding day, the more secure your business will be.

K. Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Norfolk shredding services

How to Find a Free Paper Shredding Event in Your Area

When the old bills, invoices, pay stubs and other outdated information start to stack up, it's the time to think about destroying sensitive information. It's important to ensure everything you have is shredding by a quality machine so as to render all Social Security numbers and bank routing numbers unreadable. Some professional shredding companies hold free community events to give back to charities. For the price of a few canned goods, you can receive piece of mind.

If you are interested in taking your papers to a free shredding event, there are a number of ways you can find out where to find one. For one, a simple Internet search for your location may yield community calendars listings events. Many of these are normally held at credit unions and banks in their parking lots. The shredding company will have a large truck with a built in machine on hand to take care of your goods.

If you know the number of your local business shredder, you can contact them for information on their next event, or even as for information on sponsoring one through your school, workplace, or community organization. You will find many businesses are willing to help with such programs to benefit shelters and other charities.

Lastly, check with banks around tax times and ends of fiscal quarters. Because some businesses will pay out quarterly, shredding companies may hold events close to this time to coincide with these busy seasons.
It isn't difficult at all to find a free shred in your area. Have items to donate on hand, and rest assured your private information will remain that way.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on South Carolina shredding and Virginia Beach shredding.

The Cost of Not Shredding Information is Greater

With tax deadlines approaching, this is the time when homeowners and business owners drag out boxes and boxes of receipts, invoices, and paperwork to sift through what is needed for this year's return. Ultimately, you'll find quite a bit of paper that is no longer necessary for your records. The wisest course of action is to have a professional shred these documents, yet it's surprising to see how many people won't have that done. When you consider the costs of not having the data properly destroyed, the price could be even greater than if you had.

Invoices, check stubs, receipts, and other records contain sensitive data like Social Security numbers, addresses, full names, and credit card information. With this in the wrong hands, it won't take much for an identity thief to make your like a constant headache. The necessity to shred to the point where paper is illegible is important now more than ever, regardless of the state of the economy. Choosing to either hang onto to outdated material or destroying in another method can enhance rather than solve problems.

Some people may wish to burn documents. While it's true that burning paper helps make the info unreadable, there may be repercussions. How much do you have to burn, and will it be harmful to your environment. Depending on the paper used, burning it can release toxins into the air, or else you could have a mishap and cause fire damage to your home. What's more, if you try to burn outside you may be violating city ordinances. Fire is dangerous enough, don't compound your problems if you're not sure how to properly dispose of your paperwork.

For the homeowner concerned about costs, check with local shredders to find out if shredding service days are planned. Usually around tax time, such companies will offer free shredding services in exchange for charitable donations of money or canned goods for local pantries. The longer you wait to destroy sensitive information, the more you put your security and identity at risk.

Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Richmond shredding services and Charlotte shredding services.

Make Shredding a Part of Your Tax Preparation

With April 15th right around the corner, you no doubt are rifling through important papers and receipts, collecting all the information you need to deliver an accurate tax return to the IRS. Depending on how much you have to write off, it's important to ensure you have the necessary paperwork to back up your claims. Superfluous data, however, can be eliminated, but as much of it may contain sensitive information you want to dispose of it correctly. That's why shredding should be a part of your tax preparation.

Some people may be reluctant to take paper to a professional shredder for fear of being audited. Nobody wants to destroy information that may be needed sometime down the road, yet keeping loose receipts and bank slips around can post a threat to your financial security. Were somebody to get his/her hands on a Social Security number, a bank account number or other data, it could prove a hassle to correct any identity theft problems. As an official audit can only go back five years, anything you've saved dated prior to the cutoff needs to be shredding beyond recognition.

Usually in March or April to coincide with tax preparation, banks and other financial companies may sponsor a public shredding event to raise awareness of identity safety. For the price of a small donation to a charity - usually canned good or other gently used items - people can bring their backlog of paper to be destroyed. Industrial shredders built into the backs of trucks tear through the paper and plastic credit cards and create piles of illegible remains which are usually taken to a recycling center. Your information remains secure and you help the environment by reducing waste!

When you're through with your taxes this year, take the time to shred what's left, what you don't need. You'll clear your home of clutter and live with peace of mind that your finances are more secure.

K. Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on Richmond shredding services and biometric time clocks.