Ways to Prevent Identity Theft

There are several ways to prevent identity theft from happening to you.

You don't want to end up in a situation where you are a victim of identity theft because trying to fix the mess that's been caused by some thief stealing your personal information can be a long, drawn-out process that isn't easy to resolve, especially with credit reporting bureaus and the police.

Ways to Prevent Identity Theft

Check your credit report with all 3 credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). You want to make sure there are no unauthorized credit accounts in your reports and open debts that you can't explain. You also want to look for inquiries from businesses you did not contact. Make sure all of your personal information is correct like your social security number, address and employers.

If you find fraudulent information on your reports, you must send the reporting agencies a copy of your identity theft report (police report you file if you are a victim of identity theft) and a letter telling them which information is fraudulent. The reporting agencies will let you know if they blocked the fraudulent information or not. They have four business days to place the block after they receive your identity theft report.

You can also have your credit reports monitored on a regular basis by a credit monitoring service. There is usually a monthly fee involved. You'll want to choose a monitoring service that will monitor your credit from all 3 credit bureaus and alert you whenever there are changes to your credit reports.

In addition to monitoring your credit, you also want to limit the number of credit cards you have and cancel inactive accounts. Shred any pre-approved credit card and loan applications. Also shred all checks when you close a checking account.

Shred your bank statements, paycheck stubs and tax documents that you no longer need. These documents can have your social security number on them and of course your name and address.

Don't give out any important personal information over the phone, like your social security number, driver's license number, credit card number and bank account number. Never give out your passwords to any bank accounts and ATM card.

If you are a member of a social networking site like Facebook, don't give out too much personal information like your address, date of birth, and full name. Identity theft thieves can use this information to obtain duplicate birth certificates.

These are some the most effective ways to prevent identity theft. Most of the information is pretty common sense, but sometimes we overlook some of the easiest ways our identity can be stolen.