10 ways you can lower your risk of identity theft

Simple steps you can take to protect your identity and your credit rating from ID thieves.

Identity theft is the top FTC consumer complaint with over 500,000 victims every year. ID theft isn't just annoying, because if your identity is stolen your credit rating will almost certainly be damaged. Not only that but credit repair can be a costly and time consuming endeavor.

While there is no guaranteed way of preventing identity theft, there are steps you can take which will at least reduce your risk. If you carefully follow these 10 steps you may save yourself the tremendous amount of time and hassle you will face if your identity is stolen!

10 Identity Theft Protection Tips

1. Never recycle financial papers or mail that has any personally identifiable information on them. Instead shred them first, with a cross shredder, bundle to shredded pieces into a paper bag and then put them in your recycle bin. Better yet, if you own a business, hire a professional shredding company to do the dirty work for you.
   
   
2. Call 1-888-5OPTOUT or visit www.optoutprescreen.com and request credit card companies halt sending pre-approved credit card applications via U.S. mail to your home address. They are ticking identity theft time bombs.
   
   
3. Contact your credit card companies and request they stop sending "convenience checks." They're ticking time bombs.
   
   
4. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), consumers are permitted one free credit report every year. Request yours as soon as possible and go through it meticulously.
   
   
5. Prior to filling out an application for credit or making a big purchase on credit, order a credit report. It's important to be aware of any surprises in your credit history first.
   
   
6. Hassle companies that ask for any personal data at a checkout line, such as your phone number or zip code. The harder we make it on companies, the less they will be inclined to continue this practice.
   
   
7. With access to high tech hardware and software by scammers, it's near impossible to tell online what's legitimate and what's fake. Best practices indicate deleting any emails that request personally identifiable information. The worst thing you can do is respond to them.
   
   
8. It's not rude to hang up on telemarketers. Especially if they're asking questions regarding personal information, like where you bank and what's your birthday.
   
   
9. Have the absolute minimal number of credit cards you need. Every month make time to thoroughly examine your credit card and other financial statements. The quicker an identity theft incident is discovered the better as the rights of consumers fade quickly over time.
   
   
10. Unfortunately there's very little one can do to prevent ID theft as most of the time it's due to some company's lack of security surrounding your personally identifiable information. The best you can do is be organized and be prepared. Archive and save all credit card statements and back account statements for at least one year. In the event your ID is stolen, you'll need to prove your account activity and balances.