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6 Tips to Prevent ID Theft during Your Move

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6 Tips to Prevent ID Theft during Your Move

It's natural to worry about your china chipping and your furniture getting scratched during a move. The usual remedy is to hire a reputable moving company and buy more bubble wrap. But what extra precautions are you taking to safeguard your identity? Painters, plumbers, movers, realtors and their clients, cleaners, and anyone else entering your new or your old residence could gain access to your sensitive information. And reclaiming your identity takes a lot more time than replacing a piece of broken china.

So what should you do? To be on the safe side, follow these six tips:

1. Don't let others move your financial documents. Rather, make the effort to keep those in your possession and move them yourself. Always keep marriage and birth certificates, wills, Social Security cards, tax paperwork, and checkbooks in a safe place (either with you, in a locked storage facility, or in a safety deposit box at the bank).
2. Password protect your computer and the sensitive documents on it. During a move, your home can become as public as a library, and you want to make sure your electronic information is kept private. Also, consider moving your computer and any external hard drives with sensitive information yourself.
3. Before packing a single box, spend an afternoon shredding. Don't just stuff important paperwork in a box to sort later at your new home; take the time now to shred old and unnecessary documents before the move gets underway and things get lost in the shuffle.
4. Tell all of your creditors of your upcoming move. You certainly don't want bills and statements that contain your account numbers and other personal information delivered to the new residents living at your old address.
5. Place a hold on your mail during the entire week of your move, and schedule your change-of-address to take effect after that. This way, no one can steal your mail while you're too busy to collect it. Plus, this will help reduce the chance that mail is delivered to your old address after you've moved.
6. Check your credit report after you're settled into your new place. Your credit report will quickly bring to your attention signs of identity theft. Pull all three of your reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to get a complete picture of potential fraud. Scan them for credit inquiries that you didn't authorize and accounts that look unfamiliar. You'll also want to closely check your bank and credit card statements for purchases you didn't make. The earlier you catch identity theft, the easier it is to recover from.

Carrie Davis is the lead columnist for the SpendOnLife, an online resource dedicated to ensuring readers have the latest and most thorough information on credit, debt, and identity theft.a