You live in a great country and a great San Diego North County real estate community. You have worked hard to accumulate what you own so please use the hits below to help minimize the chance of identity theft.
- Make photocopies of your important vital information that you normally carry around. Keep it is a safe deposit box or safe.
- When you travel carry only necessary information with you. Go through your purse or wallet and leave unimportant cards at home. My wife and I carry different credit cards when we travel so if one person’s is lost we can easily cancel those cards and still have a usable set with us.
- Avoid providing your social security number to anyone unless it is absolutely necessary.
- Pick up your mail out of your mailbox daily. If traveling stop your mail or have someone you trust pick it up.
- Place your outgoing mail directly in a U.S. Postal Service mailbox to reduce the temptation of mail theft.
- After reading mail, shred documents with personal or financial information before throwing in the trash. A lot of fraud and identity theft comes from people “dumpster diving.”
- You should monitor your credit at least yearly. You are entitled by law to receive one free credit report from the major credit reporting companies each year. That means you could check on your credit for free 3 times a year.
- Be careful when you ATM’s. There may be people trying to see your PIN number so as to try to gain access to your accounts. Make sure you don’t leave your deposit receipt for the next guy to pick up.
- When you order new checks, you could choose to have them delivered to you bank instead of your home.
- When buying things over the Internet, make sure you are on a secured page before entering in your credit card number.
- Carefully monitor your bank statement each month to make sure all charges are yours. Also, review your credit card statements carefully. Check to make sure you got all deposits and credits due.
There are many other things you can do to protect your money and identity. Basically, always just use good common sense. See my other related blog articles, “Identity Theft – San Diego North County” and “Minimize Identity Theft.”
For San Diego North County real estate information including information about North County homes for over 55 (55+), contact Gary Harmon, your top San Diego North County Realtor.
