Five Ways to Help Protect Your Identity

Follow these routine steps to help protect personal information and reduce your risk of identity theft.


Identity theft happens. It’s an unfortunate fact of modern life. But there are certain steps you can take to help keep your personal information from falling into the wrong hands.

Every day, you do things to protect what’s most important to you. And you know what? You do them almost automatically. Routine things like looking both ways before you cross, brushing your teeth, and buckling your seat belt.

Another routine to get into is keeping tabs on your identity and personal information. Here are five easy ways you can do it.

  1. Read your credit card and bank statements carefully and often.
  2. Know your payment due dates. If a bill doesn’t show up when you expect it, look into it.
  3. Read the statements from your health insurance plan. Make sure the claims paid match the care you got.
  4. Shred any documents with personal and financial information.
  5. Review each of your three credit reports at least once a year. It’s easy, and it’s free.

And before you know it, protecting your personal information can be as routine as locking your doors at night.

For more tips and tools on dealing with identity theft, visit ftc.gov/idtheft.

The information provided is from third parties not affiliated in any way with Ideal Lending LLC. This third party content is for general informational purposes only, and Ideal Lending LLC makes no express or implied warranties, promises, or representations as to the nature, standard, accuracy or otherwise of the information provided, nor to the suitability of the information to your particular circumstances. Ideal Lending is not a tax or financial advisor, and individual tax circumstances may vary. Please consult a licensed tax professional and appropriate government agencies to determine tax consequences of home ownership.

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