Opting For A Cross Cut Shredder

We've all become more conscious of the need to protect ourselves from personal identity theft. Gone are the days when you'd simply throw your bank statement into your dustbin without a second thought. Just a few years ago no one would have believed that strangers would be prepared to go through people's rubbish looking for personal details. Now any piece of paper that has personal information on it should be disposed of in such away that it is unreadable and thus prevent any possibility of identity fraud.

Of course you could just rip up your credit card statements but that's only slightly better than throwing them away untouched into your bin. How ever much you rip up a piece of paper by hand it's never going to be small enough to prevent someone being able to piece it back together again and that goes for using scissors too unless you want to spend hours doing it.

Not surprisingly paper shredders have now become a feature of not just offices but of homes as well. Cheaper models will simply shred documents into thin strips. This is relatively effective for low risk items and the result is also good for packing boxes to protect items when moving.

However even these strips can be put back together with a bit of patience. On Wikipedia there are some images of strip shredded documents that were pieced together by carpet weavers in Iran - link. Technology has since moved on, there is computer software available to do the job more quickly. And the reason why someone would go to all this trouble is because of the large amounts of money that can be made through fraud using other people's personal data.

A far more effective option is a cross cut shredder. These shredders cut the documents into much smaller pieces which is why they are often called confetti cut shredders. This is all done by having the blades in the shredder head cut the paper in two different directions (i.e. cross cut), both horizontally and vertically.

The smaller the pieces produced the more secure the shredding will be. This is often referred to as the 'security level' which manufacturers will often quote. Level 3 or 4 will be ideal for most homes and offices. Use one of these cross cut shredders and you can be sure that any document that has information on it that could be used by fraudsters or might potentially embarrass you will be properly destroyed and not retrievable.

Choose your cross cut shredder wisely and not only will it shred your paper documents but will also shred your expired credit card as well so that you will no longer have to resort to trying cut it up into small pieces with a pair of scissors. Be safe and shred anything that might be used by others.