On Saturday, 18 October 2014, 74 Navy Federal Credit Union locations around the country will be welcoming members and neighbors to it's free personal document shredding event. A full list of participating branches can be found here.
Shredding will be offered from 9 am to 1 am. Each person may bring up to four 12" X 24" boxes of paper and documents. Hard substances, such as CDs, will not be accepted.
If you have personal papers that really should be shredded, this is a great opportunity to get a lot of paper shredded quickly without having to sit at your home shredder for hours. Those commercial shredders are FAST!
What should you shred?
Pay stubs, bank statements and cancelled checks more than one year old
Bills that do not have electronic copies, more than one year old
Warranties and receipts for items you no longer own, unless they are part of your tax return.
Obsolete checks
OLD, non-tax related insurance policies, policy statements, retirement plan statements, etc.
Anything that includes:
- Account numbers
- Birth dates
- Passwords and PINs
- Signatures
- Social Security numbers
If you really want to be comprehensive, the Washington State Office of the Attorney General recommends shredding the following items:
- Address labels from junk mail and magazines
- ATM receipts
- Bank statements
- Birth certificate copies
- Canceled and voided checks
- Credit and charge card bills, carbon copies, summaries and receipts
- Credit reports and histories
- Employee pay stubs
- Employment records
- Expired credit and identification cards including driver’s licenses, college IDs, military IDs, employee badges, medical insurance cards, etc. (If your shredder can’t handle plastic, cut up cards with a scissors before discarding them.)
- Expired passports and visas
- Legal documents
- Insurance documents
- Investment, stock and property transactions
- Luggage tags
- Medical and dental records
- Papers with a Social Security number
- Pre-approved credit card applications
- Receipts with checking account numbers
- Report cards
- Resumés or curriculum vitae
- Signatures (such as those found on leases, contracts, letters)
- Tax forms
- Transcripts
- Travel itineraries
- Used airline tickets
- Utility bills (telephone, gas, electric, water, cable TV, Internet)
What great motivation to clear out those old files, make your life a little more secure, and have less to move next time around!
