By Carol Steve

Identity theft is the worst thing that can happen to your finances. If someone assumes your identity, they can really create havoc in regards to your personal finance. Thus, it is important for you to be aware of the identity thieves around you and try avoiding them. If identity theft occurs, it can ruin your credit by lowering your credit score and the negatives are going to stay on your credit report for up to 7 years. Identity theft is a constantly growing crime, thus you need to be aware of the ways in which you can avoid the same.

If you are not able to avoid identity theft then you may fall into huge debt. Take a look to the Internet's first get-out-of-debt community . Get a debt free life and check the following points which will help stay out of indentity theft.

Some of the most important things that you need to do in order to avoid identity theft are:

1. Preserve your Social Security card in a safe place and avoid giving out information regarding it to anybody without necessity.

2. Be careful about your purse or wallet. It is obvious that you carry debit and credit cards in your wallet so never put it down without a proper hand connection with it. Carry a limited number of cards and checks with you.

3. Check the credit card and other kinds of bank statements carefully for any unauthorized charges.

4. Tear up the documents containing your personal information that you don’t need before throwing those away.

5. Be careful about revealing any kind of identifying information to anyone over the phone or online before signing up with any website. Make sure that the person asking for the details is for real and if such information is really needed.

6. It is important for you to check your credit reports from the three credit bureaus at least twice a year and check the credit reports carefully for any inaccuracies.

7. Place passwords on your credit cards, bank and phone accounts that you have. You can use a combination of numbers letters and symbols in order to create passwords; also change them from time to time.

Clearing credit and paying off debt

The first thing that you need to do after realizing that your identity has been stolen is that you will have to file a police report and also file complaints with your creditors so as to lock your credit and debit cards. Send a copy of the police report to the creditor as proof of your claim. Only if you keep a close watch on your credit reports, credit cards and bank statements will you be able to detect identity theft soon enough, if and after it has occurred. If you are able to inform your creditors about the theft within 2-3 days, they may be able to take better action and you may be relieved of the load of paying the theft related dues. Even if you think that this can create problems in relation to your job, you can also talk to your employer and carry proofs of your complaints.

However, if you haven’t been aware for a long time that you have been a victim of identity theft, you may have no other option but to pay off the debts. In that case, you can include these debts in a debt consolidation program. Debt consolidation is the process that lowers the interstate rate on your debts (unsecured) and shrinks the number of debts that you have. So, if you think that you need consolidation help, you can go to a reliable, BBB (Better Business Bureau) accredited non-profit debt Consolidation Company. Non-profit companies offer you authentic help at a reasonable cost.

However, if you are thinking of paying off the debts on your own, you can talk to your creditors about the theft. Before agreeing on a payment plan, try to convince the creditors to remove the negative information on your credit report as you weren’t aware of these. If you had always been a regular on-time payer, the creditors might agree to remove the negative in lieu of the payments. This is known as the Pay for Delete or PFD process.

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