Every home or business owner knows the importance of shredding items like tax forms, credit card bills, and more, but this list should be even longer. Many people carelessly throw away papers containing confidential information without even realizing it. Here are five common documents that can contain important information you might forget to shred before throwing away.
Receipts
Receipts are so common that many people don’t realize they should be shredding them. We receive receipts for almost everything we buy daily, including items for our businesses or organizations. Your receipts will feature the last four digits of your business debit or credit card, which is sometimes all that hackers need to access your information. Even cash receipts can hold important information you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.
Outdated Resumes
Every business or organization has old, outdated resumes on file. Whether you’re disposing of your own resume or previous employees’ resumes, be sure to shred them first. Resumes often contain information like full names, phone numbers, and other identifying factors. For your own information safety and employee safety, always treat old resumes with care. It’s crucial to shred any type of old employee information, including resumes, for legal protection and purposes.
Travel Records
Whether you’re taking business trips for work or coming back from a vacation, you should be sure to keep track of your luggage tags, boarding passes, and other travel records. These may become irrelevant once your trip is over, but they can still contain identifying information, such as your name, phone number, contact information, membership ID numbers, and more. Don’t let thieves steal your identity or your travel rewards. Instead, shred any pieces of outdated flight information.
Return Labels
When you receive a package at your business or home, never recycle the packaging without removing and shredding the return label first. Return labels feature shipping addresses for the sender and destination, as well as phone numbers, full names, and more. Remove these labels and shred them alongside any junk mail, stationery, or other mailing items that could include your confidential information.
Old Bank Statements
Most banks recommend that you hold onto personal and business statements for one to three years. After your bank statements become outdated, you should still treat them with caution before disposing of them. Even outdated statements contain important account and financial information of your personal or business’s bank records. Be sure to shred any and all old banking documents before tossing them.
Remember these five common documents that people forget to shred to organize both your personal and business records in the future. And if you need a reliable means to shred these documents and more, turn to Capital Shredder for all your shredding needs. As a paper shredding machine supplier, we offer various high-security shredders for any type of office or organization.
