What Documents Should You Save and How Long For?
It is a frightening thought but there are documents that come through your mailbox virtually every day containing details about you that might prove handy to a fraudster.
Of course, unless you want a house that turns into a paper mountain you will need to throw documents away at some point. But which documents are worth taking care of and when is the right time to throw them away?
While some financial and utility organisations don’t have universal policy on how long customers should keep bills, statements etc, all of them stress that throwing them away in the correct manner is more important than worrying about how long to keep them safe (see Safe Shredding).
Going Through Bins
A recent survey by the British credit rating company Experian into what Britons keep inside of their bins came to some startling conclusions.
Detailed in the report “Lifting the lid on identity theft and credit card fraud” was the following:
40% of bins contained a credit card or debit card number that could be linked to an individual. Even more worrying most of these also included the expiry date of the card.
75% contained the full name and address of the owner of the house.
20% contained a bank or building society number and a sort code that can be linked to the person’s address.
Most worrying of all one bin even contained a signed blank cheque.
The report delivered clear damning evidence that when it comes to throwing documents away the British public really need to do much better. Almost every bin in the survey contained information that could be used by a fraudster to help them gain access to a person’s bank details or credit card details.
Where to Start
Why not call one of our advisors on 0800 594 2345 to discuss your requirements in more detail, or simply click on any of the images below to go direct to the shredder section of our business machines website.
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