If you receive credit card offers in the mail, it likely means you’ve got good credit and are considered a low-risk borrower by the financial institutions that send the offers out. While this is great news, it’s not so great having a bunch of junk mail cluttering your countertops. If you’re not in the market for a new credit card, you might have the urge to toss them in the trash. However, you should think twice before doing so.
Consider the fact that credit card issuers and other lenders collect contact information from credit bureaus to pre-approve individuals who meet specific credit criteria. Once those individuals are pre-approved, credit card offers are mailed to those individuals. The details included on those credit card offers often contain valuable personal information that can put you at risk.
Instead of throwing it away or recycling it directly, any document that contains personal information should be shredded. Shredding these documents prevents thieves from using your personal information to commit credit card fraud or identity theft.
Personal Information Found on Credit Card Offers
Credit card offers can contain a variety of personal identifiable information (PII). What is PII? It’s any type of data that can be traced back to a specific individual. Some of the PII that can be found on credit card offers include:
- Your full name
- Your address
- Your credit score
- Your income range
- Your age
Even if account or identification numbers aren’t listed on these offers, they contain enough information to potentially do some damage. Thieves can use just a few pieces of information to open false accounts, charge credit cards in your name, and even sell your identity to another criminal. Keeping PII private is critical in maintaining the integrity of your identity. It’s always best to shred a document containing personal information to avoid the risk of someone coming across it in the trash.
The Dangers of Not Shredding
Today, most fraudulent threats and scams seem to be linked to the internet in some shape or form. Stories of cyberattacks and online data breaches tend to make headlines, so it’s easy to forget that physical documents can also spur identity theft. Though consumers should be wary of online scams and data theft, there are still criminals who search through trash to collect physical copies of personal data.
Even if a credit card offer doesn’t contain all of the information criminals are looking for, they can use multiple pieces of mail or other documents to piece together what’s missing. Identity thieves will then use your personal information in a number of undesirable ways. They can:
- Take over your accounts and lock you out (bank, e-commerce, phone accounts, etc.)
- Sell your PII to others
- Apply for new credit cards, loans, or bank accounts in your name
- Open new accounts in your name (phone, electricity, gas accounts, etc.)
- Add themselves as an authorized user to your credit cards
- Make purchases with your credit cards
- Gain access to and use your checkbooks
- File tax returns in your name to steal your refund
- Apply for government benefits in your name
- Receive medical care and have procedures done
- Create a falsified passport
Many of these undesired events could cause financial strain and high levels of stress. If you make the effort to shred your credit card offers and other sensitive documents, you’ll have better chances of keeping your information from falling into the wrong hands.
Secure Shredding Methods
Professional shredding services are the safest method of shredding. Personal shredders often use strip shred methods, which can be reconstructed by criminals looking to obtain your information. Professional equipment, on the other hand, uses cross-cut shredding to cut your paper into tiny, confetti-like pieces. Professional shredding also combines the shreds from thousands of documents and recycles the pieces. This makes it virtually impossible to recover your information once it’s been processed professionally.
Shred Nations offers access to professional shredding services for businesses and individuals. Our services are available on site with mobile shredding, offsite at a secure facility, and through Ship ‘N’ Shred, our mail-back service.
Mobile Shredding
Mobile shredding comes directly to your home to shred your documents at the curb. It works similarly to your neighborhood trash service. A shred truck will pull up, use a mechanical arm to dump the shred bin into the shredder and destroy your documents in just minutes. You can witness the entire process for peace of mind and confirmation that your information is safe.
Offsite Shredding
Offsite shredding is ideal for larger shredding projects like a moving purge or estate clean-out. One of our trusted shredding providers will collect your documents and safely deliver them to a secure, offsite shredding facility. At the facility, your documents will be handled safely and destroyed quickly.
Ship ‘N’ Shred
Ship ‘N’ Shred is our mail-back shredding service. Designed for smaller shredding projects, you simply box up your documents and mail them to the shredding facility. It is a convenient and affordable method that ensures high security and compliance with all applicable privacy laws.
Protect Your Personal Information with Shred Nations
Shred Nations partners with a reliable, nationwide network of shredding experts. We offer a wide range of secure and affordable services to meet your shredding and security needs. Give us a call at (800) 747-3365 or fill out the form to connect with shredding providers near you. We look forward to safeguarding your personal information to prevent identity theft and fraud.
