You don't need to keep all the financial documents in your file. Not all the documents are equally important to you. This article discusses about 5 financial documents which you can destroy right away.
Are your cabinets and files flooded with the years and years of financial documents? Do you even need all the financial documents in your daily life? If no, then you can destroy and dispose some of the financial documents. Read along to know about 5 financial documents you can destroy and dispose immediately.
Financial Documents You Can Destroy Without Any Problem
Go through the following lines to know about the financial documents you can destroy without getting into serious problems-
1. Plastic card offers: Do you receive hundreds of credit card offers just like most of the average American citizens in a month? Do you accept all the offers? Most likely not! Then what’s the point of retaining them?
Retain the credit card offers which you are going to accept in reality. Destroy the offers which you are not going to accept. It has been observed that the maximum number of identify-theft cases occurs within the family members. For example, you have kept credit card offer in your dashboard. Your brother finds it, and decides to take up the offer. The catch is he takes up the offer in your name. He opens the credit card account and uses the card for making his purchases. At the end of the month, you receive a mammoth credit card bill about which you don't have any prior knowledge.
Credit card offers are apparently harmless. Still, it is better to not take any risks. Tear the credit card offers which you are not going to accept and throw them into the waste paper basket.
2. Photo identity cards: School identity cards or mementoes from your previous employers have emotional values. You may like to keep those cards and show them to your children one day. However, these photo identity cards contain some important information about you. Anyone visiting your room can collect relevant information about you by just looking at the cards. This information can be used against you at any moment. This explains why it is better to shred them into pieces.
3. Old bank statements: Go to the attic and take out the old files. Find out if the files are filled up with the old bank statements. If yes, then shred them as early as possible. You won't need these bank statements now. So, you can easily afford to get rid of them. Bank statements reveal important details about your financial health. People can take undue advantage of it. Due to this reason, it is better to not retain the paper bank statements. If you do want to have some bank statements, then you can ask the bank to send the statements via emails.
4. Income tax returns of the previous years: Logically, tax return documents should be kept in the files. These documents are extremely helpful when you get audited by the IRS. However, IRS is less likely to audit you after 3-4 years of filing tax returns. So, unless you have lied in your income tax returns, you can throw the tax return documents (older than 3-4 years) in the trash bags.
5. Checks you have cancelled: If the cancelled checks fall in the hand of the scammers, then it can get you into a major financial trouble. This is because your bank account number is printed at the bottom of the check. Apart from the bank account number, your residential address, credit card number, and contact number may also be written in the check. This is why once you cancel a check, tear it into pieces. This way the single piece of paper will not become a deadly weapon against you.
Finally, it often happens that people facing financial crunch choose to close their plastic cards. They aim to control their overspending habits in this manner. However, the main question is, should they dispose these cards into the waste paper basket? Financial experts say that people can dispose them, but they need to do this little cautiously.
The magnetic stripe on the plastic cards contains some encoded integral information. It is better to not let the scammers or the people with bad intentions know about the bank information of the consumers. So, the best way to dispose is to cut the card into several pieces, and throw them into the trash bag.
