How to servive your ID in modern world

Last time I wrote I went over what to do should you lose your wallet. Hopefully this never will happen to you, but if it does all is not lost. There are good safety practices in place to protect yourself from fraud if you do lose your wallet.

Previously I talked about the steps to take after you lose your wallet. 
Today I will talk about some preventative measures you can take before you lose your wallet to minimize your risk.

Clear out your wallet of anything you don’t need. Many of us are guilty of carrying all of our credit and debit cards at the same time, even though we really only use one card 99.9% of the time. We tend to carry around the other cards “just in case.” 

This is unnecessarily risky, and you really should only carry your main card and one backup. Leave the rest at home.
Clear out everything that could be useful to an identity criminal. These items include addresses, phone numbers, passwords, and anything with your social security number on it.
Take a scan or photo of everything in your wallet. Scan everything from your driver’s license and credit cards to insurance cards, membership cards, work ID, even gift cards.
 Keep it in a file on your computer or upload it to a cloud server and update it regularly. This way you’ll not only have backup copies of everything, but you’ll also know instantly what is missing should you lose your wallet.

Check out a lost wallet app. Many of them are free and available for most smart phones. A lot of these apps replicate the contents of your wallet (just as you do by photocopying your items) and then store the information with a password.
 Some of these apps also have a list of emergency numbers (think your credit unions, the local authorities, etc.) stored so you can call them instantly from your phone.

You can get a little fancy here too and look into a tracking device for your wallet and other valuables. There are gadgets available that you attach to your wallet (or other valuable) and work with GPS to provide its location.

Losing your wallet subjects you to an identity theft and fraud nightmare that could take years to wake up from. Take preventative measures today to keep yourself and your valuables safe.

Always Safe, Always Prepared

Frank Mitchell
Founder

P.S. One preventative measure I’ve been taking to guard the contents of my wallet is using these new RFID scan blocker cards. These cards fit perfectly in my wallet and actually stop identity theft. They give me peace of mind, I think they will for you too.
You can check them out here