The quick rule: shred anything with a signature, an account number, a phone number, a Social Security number, or medical or legal information — plus every credit offer that arrives in the mail.
The complete list:
- 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
- Documents containing a maiden name (credit card companies use it as a security answer)
- Documents containing names, addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses
- Documents relating to investments
- Documents containing passwords or PINs
- Driver’s licenses or anything with a driver’s license number
- Employee pay stubs
- Employment records
- Expired passports and visas
- Unlaminated ID cards (college IDs, state IDs, employee badges, military IDs)
- Legal documents
- Investment, stock, and property transaction records
- Anything with a signature (leases, contracts, letters)
- Luggage tags
- Medical and dental records
- Papers with a Social Security number
- Pre-approved credit card applications
- Receipts with checking account numbers
- Report cards
- Résumés
- Tax forms
- Transcripts
- Travel itineraries
- Used airline tickets
- Utility bills (phone, gas, electric, water, cable, internet)
Boxes piling up as you read this? That’s what the purge checklist and a truck visit are for. Note: laminated cards, hard drives, CDs, and tapes don’t go in with the paper — they’re specialty destruction.