Safe and Sound: 5 Tips For Protecting Valuable Documents From Getting Damaged
People will always go extra miles to ensure the valuables in their houses have got maximum protection. however, one area which gets overlooked when it comes to security is that of vital documents whereby only a couple of people will bother to ascertain the whereabouts and the safety integrity of their documents. Actually, a study by the Consumer Reports National Research Center revealed that one out of four Americans has either lost or is not certain on the location of his/her vital documents. The research further revealed that 60% of all Americans could not locate their crucial documents whenever required. This, therefore, is a clear indication that little is being done to enhance the security of individual documents, especially at a personal level. However, this should not be the case considering the increased rate of fraudulent activities which sometimes only require a small piece of information from these documents to effect malicious activities. This should not be the only concern since there is also the aspect of damage either from fire or water/flooding which might occur abruptly without individual knowledge. This article, therefore, is entitled to enlighten you on the safe and sound tips which you can apply to protect your valuable document from getting damaged
Important documents to secure
Before discussing the protection tips, it is important to first understand those crucial documents which you have to protect by all the possible means available. Although the term crucial is relative in this context, the assumption is that any document which in one way or another has a connection to your career or will be required by the federal or state government or any other administrative organ is crucial or important of that matter. Academic certificate (s) is one of those documents which you have to always protect. This document determines the future of your career as you will be required to produce it whenever you are applying for jobs. The birth certificate is another crucial document which requires optimal security. In most cases, you will be required to produce this document when being issued with other documents such as the passport. Social Security Cards are also to be protected as they represent your identity. In case they land on the hands of the strangers especially those with evil intentions, these social security cards can be used to propagate some fraudulent activities considering they are connected to many areas such as bank accounts. Finally, having solid protection for your travel documents is also important. These are just a few of the documents considered crucial but there are others such as family photos and many more depending on the person of concern.
5 tips for Protecting Valuable Documents
Safe Deposit Box
This is the best approach you can take to enhance the safety of your documents. In this method, you get possession of a secure box where you only can have access to the document or any other valuable you have stored in the box. In most cases, the safe deposit boxes are provided by banks at a small monthly or yearly fee depending on the bank of concern. Most banks will actually offer this service at a discounted rate for the customers who have got accounts with them. However, it is good to note that there is no immediate access to these safe boxes in some instances and therefore you should consider having copies of the documents in your home.
Home Safes
This is similar to the safe deposit box although the difference is that it is at your home and you have access to it all the time. Home safes should have fire and water-proof materials so that they can offer sufficient protection even in the wake of a calamity. The locking mechanism for the home safes should also be secure to ensure that no unauthorized party has access to the documents. This way, it becomes possible to enact a strong protection technique not only from calamity damage but also from the risk of theft.
Plastic slips
If you lack the means to effect the above two methods, you can consider making use of the plastic slips. In this method, you only require to purchase a plastic page slips and insert your documents in there. The slip will protect your documents against wear and tear as well as accidental spills. It is recommended that once you put the documents in this slip, you bid them or put them in a box. However, in a situation whereby the documents get damaged accidentally may be from fire or water, you can consider having a fake one while making an effort of obtaining another genuine copy. This mostly works with the academic certificates but you need to learn more about this so that you won’t implement it the wrong way.
Keep your documents together
This might seem an obvious tip but most people actually overlook it. The majority will have got their crucial documents scattered across various locations in the house. This should not be the case because, in the time of a calamity, such as fire, it will become very difficult to save all the documents. Therefore, having centralized storage is a good idea which can save you a lot of time and resources as well.
Digitize your documents
The current technology provides immense opportunities for one to convert physical documents to digital ones. In this method, you only need to scan the documents and store them in a safe digital platform where you can retrieve them easily. However, you need to consider the safety of the platform chosen so that you won’t risk sensitive information being accessed by another party. Some of the storage spaces available include the email, Dropbox, Amazon drive, and other cloud storage spaces. Make good research about the space to be utilized especially on the aspect of security.
When put into practice, the above tips can be highly helpful in the future as you continue to get hold of more crucial documents.