I used to be a mortgage loan officer years ago, only I only did the 'good' loans, what I myself would want. We invested in a cross cut paper shredder years ago and use it religiously. Once your information is 'out there' you can't ever get it back, and what happens to your credit & medical history is a nightmare that will continue for years, because once you fix it, round two starts. Nothing goes into the garbage bin that has any scrap of information about us, credit applications we receive are shredded, we are scrupulously careful about information that is given to others, and we locked our credit with all 3 bureaus years ago. In one of the towns we used to live in there was a prison -- guess who sorted through the garbage every week to weed out recyclables, etc? Yep, the inmates.