# How important to shred? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444 "2015-11-02T18:10:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/21 "2015-11-03T15:36:42Z")
And everyone understands that you give away your bank account number every time you write a check, and your credit card number every time you buy something (and a copy of your signature any time you buy something in person)? Plus, everybody and their brother has your SSN on file? The real issue, of course, is that if some nefarious person wanted to get some random person’s SSN or credit card number, they’d just buy a few thousand (or million) or them on-line from the latest hack of a retailer’s database. A lot easier than digging through coffee grounds to get one at a time. > [@ftg](#): > > . What I do to bulk materials is put it in a plastic tub, fill with water, let it sit for a week, mixing it up from time to time, compost it. Ok, now we’re joking right? ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/22 "2015-11-03T16:11:49Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > > [@ftg](#): > > > > Yes, people do go thru garbage looking for stuff. It’s not everywhere, all the time, you might not see it. **But it is surprisingly frequent.** > > That’s ridiculous. The key word is “surprisingly”. If it happened more than once in a blue moon, I would consider that surprisingly frequent. ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/23 "2015-11-03T17:20:04Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Certainly shredding will work. What I do to bulk materials is put it in a plastic tub, fill with water, let it sit for a week, mixing it up from time to time, compost it. > > You might not be able to do that last step. But once turned into a slurry, you can throw it out. Pretty much what I used to do before Mrs Nobbins told me that we WERE going to buy a shredder. Costs nothing, uses no electricity, can’t go wrong… seemed good to me. ---
**Author:** ![jbaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/59ef9b/32.png) [@jbaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbaker)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/24 "2015-11-03T19:00:37Z")
Bear in mind that your liability for unauthorized credit card use is limited to $50 per card (and, in my experience, credit card issuers frequently waive even this). So if you were protecting only one credit card, and you did not plan to use the shredder for anything other than shredding old credit card chits, then you couldn’t justify a cost of more than $50. Also bear in mind that if the chits are old enough then the expiration date on your credit card will have changed, although I’m not sure how careful card issuers are in checking this. The Federal Trade Commission has a page with advice on protecting credit/debit cards and card information, [http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-credit-atm-and-debit-cards](http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-credit-atm-and-debit-cards). Buying a shredder is not included with the advice. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/25 "2015-11-04T01:10:39Z")
If you get a shredder, be sure to keep it oiled. My medium-priced model has lasted several years, probably due to this. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/26 "2015-11-04T04:53:49Z")
> [@jbaker](#): > > The Federal Trade Commission has a page with advice on protecting credit/debit cards and card information, [Lost or Stolen Credit, ATM, and Debit Cards | Consumer Advice](http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0213-lost-or-stolen-credit-atm-and-debit-cards). Buying a shredder is not included with the advice. It is worth repeating, as is mentioned on that link, that if someone obtains your card number but not your card, you are not liable _at all_ for fraudulent use. Many people do not understand this and banks often don’t see any need to point it out. However, I am not as concerned with credit card fraud as with identity theft, where they open a new card in my name then my credit history gets trashed. That is much worse to fix than a stolen credit card. ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/27 "2015-11-04T05:32:32Z")
I’m a security guy - that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 12 years. I’ve dived in dumpsters, stolen trash, etc. There’s more data on that statement than just a (hopefully partial) credit card number. If I want to be a ninja, I can learn quite a bit from your trash. One of my clients (I’ll just say “large telco”) was amazed at what we were able to do (within the scope of our contract) to them. Burn, shred, whatever - make it too difficult to be worthwhile with your data. A $50 shredder is much cheaper than going through the whole process of having the banks “help” you figure out what happened. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of identity theft-related incidents far exceeds that of violent crime. Buy a shotgun or invest in data protection. Your call. I do both. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/28 "2015-11-04T06:18:39Z")
> [@seal\_cleaner](#): > > If you get a shredder, be sure to keep it oiled. My medium-priced model has lasted several years, probably due to this. Are you using the oil shredder sheets? I bought a 12 pack from Office Depot. I run one through just before any big shredding job. Mine doesn’t have an oil reservoir tank to fill. I think only the commercial heavy duty models have that feature. I’ve been told squirting shredder oil on a stack of clean paper (6 sheets ?? should be enough) and shredding works too. Haven’t tried that method. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/29 "2015-11-04T15:13:28Z")
> [@GiantRat](#): > > One of my clients (I’ll just say “large telco”) was amazed at what we were able to do (within the scope of our contract) to them. Irrelevant. The OP is an individual, not a “large telco.” The amount of valuable information that can be obtained from his garbage is considerably less. > [@GiantRat](#): > > According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of identity theft-related incidents far exceeds that of violent crime. Irrelevant. How many of those identity thefts were the result of someone digging through household garbage? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444/30 "2015-11-04T21:53:12Z")
Good … grief. I know someone who keeps track of the bigger dumpster diving Holy Cows. Unshredded medical, tax, employee records and on and on found in dumpsters. Or even blowing around. Stuff doesn’t always magically stay inside bags inside cans. Once it starts moving it can cut lose and blow all over the place. Just last week, we saw a guy digging thru a neighbors garbage can. I think this guy was looking for metal and such based on his truck contents. But if he saw a bank statement or some such, are you _sure_ it’s going to be ignored? Hoping and praying nothing bad happen is the best way to make it happen. Monitoring your credit reports is good, but let me tell you: You are going to be _much_ happier if you prevented something from happening than going thru all the work to clean it up after it does. Security isn’t a sometimes, half-baked thing. You either do it right or …, well, get royally reamed. Again, this not taking things seriously stuff is why people get 10 different malware programs installed on their computers. E.g., at my wife’s doctor last week. She was looking for an app on her phone. She scrolled thru page after page of apps. I mentioned she had too many apps. She eventually opened the app … but a Facebook page kept opening up instead. Not a good one either. She had malware on her phone. She was installing apps willy-nilly and so it was sure to happen. Her solution is that she’s going to buy a new phone. Umm, no it isn’t. The new phone will have malware in no time too. It’s her _security mentality_ that needs to change. Note, once inside a doctor’s phone, access to the system she uses to access patient records is right there. Scary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-important-to-shred/736444.md?page=1)