Identity theft is a very popular crime and is getting at new victims everyday. There are measures you might take to prevent yourself from being a victim of identity theft. Here are a few ways:

1. Guard Social Security: Criminals who are looking for targets first try to find your Social Security number. So, you should guard your SS number to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft.
2. Credit Report monitoring: Your credit report has your social security number in it. It also has the names of your present and prior employers, a list of all of your account numbers and your over all credit score. Once you have applied for a loan or have applied for any other thing that requires a credit card, you must request that your SSN on the application should be clipped or completely covered or blotted out and your original credit report to be shredded right in front of you or be given to you once the decision has been made. The lender only needs your name and credit score to make a decision.
3. Rid unnecessary items: All your old bank and credit statements must be shredded as well as junk mails that have credit card offers. You may use crosscut shredders rather than regular shredders. You may also remove yourself from the marketing lists of the 3 credit card reporting bureaus in order to reduce the number of pre-approved credit offers that you may receive. Instead, you may enlist your name in the name-deletion lists of the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service and Telephone Preference Service that banks and other marketers use.
4. Keep only important content: Let only important content fill your wallet. If you don;t need your credit card, don’t carry it with you. You may also get a photocopy of both sides of your license, credit cards and keep it with you somewhere else. This you should do, so that, if your purse gets stolen, you should have these numbers with you and also the expiration dates and phone numbers.
5. Payments: Bill payments can be washed in chemicals. So do not mail them from your home, they can easily be stolen. Remember never to print your SS number on your checks.
6. Examine statements: Always take a good look at your credit card statements before you make a payment. If you have unused credit car accounts cancel them.
7. Do not exchange personal information: You SS number and other information personal to you should not be given to anyone on the phone unless you trust that person.
8. Credit reporting monitoring service: You may subscribe to such a service so that you can find out whenever anyone is applying for credit in your name.

Secured credit cards help you to build credit much easily than a regular credit card. It is even much easier to get with low credit score as compared to regular credit cards. In secured credit card, you need to deposit some amount of money before starting to use the card to make purchases. However, a secured credit card too has some fees included just as in a regular card, like application fees, processing fees and annual fees, etc.

The things that you should know before taking a secured credit card are:

1. The costs of the card – Like the regular credit card, the secured credit cards too require you to pay fees like the application fees, processing fees and annual fees. It is better to check all the fees included with the card offer to avoid high cost ones.

2. Where to get a secured card – You can get a secured credit card at the credit unions. They offer secured credit cards to their members. If you join a credit union, you will easily be able to get a secured credit card. Also some banks do offer secured credit cards. After this you can make small purchases, and make on-time payments on these to improve your credit score.
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