Knowing when to shred personal documents comes down to two questions: what contains sensitive personal information, and what records should you keep instead. In general, documents with account numbers, Social Security numbers, signatures, medical details, or homebuying information should be shredded when you no longer need them, while key home purchase and homeownership records should be retained.
How do you know what happens to your documents when you put a piece of paper in the trash? It can be difficult to know who is seeing it and what they are doing with it. It isn’t very common to burn trash anymore; therefore you can be sure that your paper garbage or recycling is likely to pass through several hands on its way to a landfill or recycling center.
Important documents – including anything to do with your financial information or anything relating to the purchase or sale of a home – should be discarded of carefully so they don’t get into the wrong hands. Here are some tips to follow.
Every step that occurs once the trash leaves your control has risk that someone will find personal information they can use to cause you harm. One way to safeguard personal information is to shred it before it goes into the trash.
Shredding devices are available at most office supply stores. Cross-cut shredders provide more security than strip-cut shredders. You may want to consider one depending on your level of concern. Shredding services or shredding events are often offered by financial institutions or community organizations.
Properly destroying sensitive personal information, such as that contained within documents that pertain to a recent home purchase, is a key step in helping to keep your identity secure. You really should shred any documents containing personal information, but be cautious not to shred financial documents that you may still need.
The Better Business Bureau offers these guidelines on when to shred:
After you buy a home, is it necessary to hold onto all those documents? What about after a few years have passed? Should you still hang on to them? You don’t want to have to file all of the paperwork if it’s not necessary, especially if your filing cabinet is starting to burst at the seams. But you also don’t want to throw out something important.
If a document should not be shredded yet, store it in a way that makes it easier to decide what stays permanently and what can eventually be discarded. Keep permanent originals, such as core homeownership records, separate from temporary records you may only need for a limited time. Store sensitive paperwork in a secure location, such as a locked file drawer or other protected area in your home, so it is not left exposed or mixed in with everyday papers. When appropriate, keep readable digital backups as a convenience, but make sure they are organized and easy to identify if you need to reference them later.
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Bank statements with no long-term significance can generally be shredded after one year. If they were used to support tax returns, keep them for seven years before shredding.
The guidance provided is to keep records used to support tax returns for seven years. After that period, shredding may be appropriate if you no longer need them.
Credit card statements with no long-term significance can be shredded after one year. If they support tax returns, keep them for seven years, and always shred documents that contain financial information.
Monthly bill statements can be shredded one year after receiving them. Keeping them for that period can also help with year-to-year bill comparisons and budget monitoring.
Always shred documents with Social Security numbers, birth dates, PIN numbers or passwords, financial information, contracts or letters with signatures, pre-approved credit card applications, medical and dental bills, travel itineraries, and used airline tickets.
It is safer to shred documents with personal or financial information before putting them in the trash. Deposit, ATM, credit, and debit card receipts can be shredded once the transaction appears on your statement.
A home shredding device is one option, but shredding services and community shredding events may also be available through financial institutions or local organizations. Cross-cut shredders generally provide more security than strip-cut models.
Shredding is an important safeguard because paper thrown in the trash or recycling may pass through several hands before disposal. Properly destroying sensitive personal information helps reduce the risk of identity theft and misuse.
Important home purchase and homeownership records to retain include the buyer’s agent agreement, purchase agreement, amendments to the agreement, seller disclosures, closing disclosure, home inspection report, title insurance policy, and property deed.
Keep permanent originals, such as core homeownership records, separate from temporary records. Digital backups can be useful for convenience, but important originals should still be stored securely in a protected location.
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