We all hear of “Identity Theft “in the news. People who have their personal and financial privacy invaded by identity theft and even thefts have no end of trouble when it comes to reconciling their credit reports, charge card and bank accounts and even their personal honor and integrity whether it be from financial institutions, the credit reporting agencies, their banks and credit unions and even the police an their employers.

We all see personal document shredders for sale at big box retail stores. In addition to shredding personal and financial records – be they bank statements, legal documents as well as charge card and loan documents, bills and invoices what else can us as private citizens do to protect our financial privacy and records? After all it may be as simple as an auto loan to finance a vehicle down the line – a vehicle essential to maintain our work and employment and we find out that somehow because of our alleged past misdeeds or the fact that we have proven a poor credit or security risk, that no one wants to float the car loan – even though we have a free and clear credit and banking history. That is except for that case of identity theft in the past. What can we do to protect ourselves and our families in such situations?

First of all protect your banking and charge card accounts. For sure some of your current or past banking transactions will involve standard paper transaction documents such as checks as well as banking deposit slips. These documents are often encoded with your personal account number.

Some steps and procedures that you can both easily and simply employ to ensure that that your accounts with their vital yet private information remain confidential and cannot be accessed by unauthorized people or persons be they living next door or doing potential damage half way around the world by internet banking or charge card financial debit card use.

First of all write checks themselves using indelible ink. Indelible ink is ink that cannot be erased. Make it a point to start at the left hand margin. Make it a standard rule and procedure that when writing checks not to leave blank spaces. In terms of choice of ink and pen you would be amazed how for reasons of convenience many people simply use pens lying around their home or car – that use erasable ink. What could be easier for a financial thief using your funds to commit fraud withdrawing your available funds? On top of that you can bet that any thief worth his salt will use indelible ink on your financial charges. They know better.

If you find that you do make an error in writing that charge when filling out a check, deposit or withdrawal slip – promptly destroy it (by tearing it into pieces, cutting it up or if available use a commercial quality paper document shredder)

In terms of your financial documents and instruments – make sure that they are properly signed and assigned. For example charge card and debit finance cards should not be left unsigned. Checks should be assigned, not assigned to “cash” or “bearer” and the payee name or business should never be left blank – not even temporarily. On top of that when you go to make deposits that is the only time that you should be endorsing checks or financial documents. Not before.

Watch out for as well as anticipate your statements in the mail – be they standard bank statements , charge card invoices as well as recurring monthly bills of account – be they mortgage or car loans. If the delay seems longer than usual it never hurts to contact the issuer or financial credit agency.

Make it a point to check your financial documents as well as instruments on a regular basis to ensure that everything is in place and on board properly. You might want to switch as much as you can to electronic forms and reporting from your financial and credit institutions of choice. Direct deposits of government or pay checks are always a wise, prudent, convenient and safe choice for your money. In addition we wary of accepting financial instruments and checks – be it third party money orders , personal checks , traveler checks and the like from unknown person's

In the end anything you can do to safeguard your bank, credit accounts and financial records and record keeping can only keep you safer away from any problems of identity theft and the wasted energy of having to restore your credit and financial record.