What to Shred?
Secure document shredding is an important part in protecting your sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. Businesses, homa based offices and residential customers should shred all documents that contain any personal information such as name, address, bank information, account records, payroll inmformation, bank statements and more.
Why do I need to shred my documents?
“Dumpster diving,” or rifling through trash cans for personal information, is a tactic used by identity thieves. You are taking a terrible risk if you don’t shred sensitive material. Putting documents in the trash or recycling bin exposes you and your personal information to potential identity theft.
Home paper shredding machine vs paper shredding service.
Purchasing a paper shredder for light use at home is a great idea. If you Invest in a shredder for your home or office, make sure you get one that “cross cuts” (slices in two directions), and destroy all sensitive information including bank and credit card statements you no longer need, carbon-copy charge receipts with your account information, insurance forms, physician bills, etc. If your shredder can’t handle plastic, you can use scissors to cut up expired credit and identification cards before discarding them.
While home paper shredding machines are great for taking care of a few pieces of mail each day, they simply aren’t built to handle more than that. The average home paper shredder can shred 8-12 papers at a time for approximately 2 minutes (Followed by a 15 minute cool down period). Any more use than that will cause them to malfunction or break.
Ok, I've decided it's not worth it for me to shred my box of documents. Will you shred just a few boxes?
For larger jobs (More than just a few pieces of mail), consider hiring a commercial shredding company like Discount Shred. A standard banker box full of documents (approximately 2000 pages) that would take anywhere from 6 to 12 hours for you to shred yourself can be shredded by us in 20 seconds without having the hassle of removing staples or paperclips.
Our average rate per box generally falls somewhere between $5-$7 per box for shredding. For that price, it makes complete sense to let us shred your papers. We are happy to service any customer, no matter the size of the job.
Here is a list of documents you should shred that contain sensitive information.
Files and Records
Account records
Audits
Bank statements
Competitive information
Computer records
Contracts
Correspondence
Diligence files
Fax machine ribbons
Financial records
Insurance records
Intellectual property records
Internal memos
Invoices
Legal documents
Market research
Marketing material
Obsolete contracts
Official notices
Payroll records
Personnel files
Phone records
Planning documents
Price lists
Purchase receipts
Sales forecasts
Tax records
Training information
X-rays
Personal information
Addresses
ATM receipts
Bank account information
Bank statement
Brokerage account information
Cancelled & voided checks
Credit & debit card numbers
Credit reports and histories
Drivers’ license numbers
Employee pay stubs
Employment records
Insurance policy data
Investment documents
Medical and dental records
Passport number
Resumes
Social Security number
Telephone number
Tax forms
Travel itineraries
Used airline tickets
Files and Records
Business plans
Cancelled checks
Credit card numbers
Executive correspondence
New product information
Obsolete collateral
Photographs
Presentations
Price/inventory lists
Proposals and quotes
Proprietary documents
Receipts/invoices
R&D files/data
Files and Records
CD-ROMs/CD-Rs/DVDs
Computer Backups
Microfiche
X-Rays
Videotapes
Cassette Tapes
Casino Chips
Product Samples
Prototypes
Uniforms