Quicker than you can start and stop a stopwatch, someone's identity will be stolen. It happens every two seconds. It's a scary statistic, and it's even worse in Florida where we lead the nation in identity theft.
Preventing the crime starts at home.
Buy a shredder, and not just any shredder. You get what you pay for. The cheaper ones don't always last.
Consider it an investment and expect to spend $50 to $100 for one that will last. Many go on sale at the beginning of the New Year, so watch for the sales.
The motor burns out on cheap ones, and paper gets jammed.
Look to see how may pieces of paper you can shred at once. Also, will it cut through credit cards?
You also need to consider how the machine shreds. Strip cut shredders leave you with long strips that are easy to piece together revealing sensitive information.
It's best to buy to a cross-cut shredder because you get little pieces of paper that are hard to piece back together.
