posted
I rip them up and put some of the vital pieces in our (indoor until we take it to the recycle place) paper recycling container, and some of the other vital pieces (I like to rip important numbers in half) in a trash can, which is taken later in the week to a completely different location.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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You see, I have faith in the innate goodness of my fellow travellers on this spaceship Earth. I crumple them lightly and use them as packing material in my baskets of food and clothing for the disadvantaged.
Nah, who am I kidding? Shred them? Why would I? I've been PRE-APPROVED!! I'm using all the cards to tile my guest bathroom.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I put them in the prepaid envelopes from other junk mail, and mail my junk mail from one sender to another . . .
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Whir them in the blender with 2 cups warm water and some dried flower bits and then drain and press to make lovely handmade recycled-paper notecards.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I tear mine to pieces, but much smaller than the ones on that site. I mean I tear it in half until it can't be torn in half any longer, which is quite small. If someone wants to try and put it back together after that, go ahead. It'll take the person ages, as it's a puzzle with no reference picture and thousands upon thousands of pieces.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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It boggles the mind that a credit card company would accept an app that has been torn up or shredded like that? What do they think happened to it? Did the mailman give his deliveries to a bunch of monkeys who left piles of ripped up mail inside your front door?
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Kindling for fires in the winter. We keep a little box under the computer desk where we throw all our old receipts, credit card stuff, anything with personal information, then use it for indoor fireplace starters in the winter and bonfire starters in the summer. What do you know! They ARE good for something!
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Not only did they accept the app, but they let him send it to a different address and a different phone number for verifying. That's just scary. Hope he sent the URL to the company president/PR officer and the BBB.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I finally bought a cross cut shredder after my identity theft scare last year. Of course, since I was the one accused, a shredder wouldn't have helped last year. But I figure using a cross cut shredder plus continuing to keep good records for 5-7 years should be a safer combination in the future.
BTW, in February I did get some blank checks in the mail for my credit card. Then I realized I didn't have that credit card number. I called, it had been set up somehow about 11 months earlier and never used. Same company as another credit card that I DO own. I had them cancel the second one and send confirmation. Kind of scary.
Posts: 1014 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I tear mine into tiny pieces and divide those pieces between different garbage cans/bags (which I take out at different times). I figure anyone who's gonna go though my trash for more than a week and piece back together several hundred pieces of torn paper deserves the money.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I put mine in my "to be shredded" bag in one of my closets. I haven't actually employed my shredder in over a year though.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:It never occurred to me to have to do that with shredded documents, though.
Duh.
I'm right there with you, but way worse. As a college student, I get them daily. Kinda scary. *Looks online for a shredder*
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I believe there's a site where you can have yourself taken off the mailing lists of a lot of credit card companies. I don't remember what it is, but I used it and started getting a lot fewer credit card apps in the mail. And by "a lot fewer" I mean "one every day or two instead of several each day."
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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A couple months ago I noticed that there's a list of addresses and phone #s on credit card applications that you can use to request to NOT get applications. I sent requests off to the 3 different companies that were listed; I think it's helping, though i'm not sure how much of a lag time there'll be before the request takes effect.
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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We rip them up and throw them in the kitchen trash can with all the coffee grounds and slimy vegetable peelings and two-week old bits of sandwich meat and dripping icky tin cans that we are too lazy to rinse out and recycle and clouds of dusty dog hair from the vacuum cleaner canister. I figure that makes them so nasty, nobody would want to look for them, much less put them together.
Just thinking about it makes me feel nauseated.
Posts: 1512 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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quote:Originally posted by Yozhik: coffee grounds and slimy vegetable peelings and two-week old bits of sandwich meat and dripping icky tin cans that we are too lazy to rinse out and recycle and clouds of dusty dog hair from the vacuum cleaner canister
The bioterrorism approach to thwarting thieves.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I haven't opened an application in years. Do they actually include any personal info other than your address and name? I wouldn't think they could issue one, without you providing your SS#. So as long as your not throwing things away with that on it.
I'm sure the credit card company would take your application on a used coffee filter if you put all the appropriate info on it.
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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That is just wrong. You would think that there would be some law against a credit card company taking an obviously ripped application...particularly one that changes that address that the card should be sent to.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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Wow, that's a great story, ElJay. I can't believe a credit card company would accept an application like that.
We shred the credit card applications we get. Although, on occasion, I have torn up the identifiable as me information into teeny tiny bits (much smaller than that guys tearing up) and flushed them down the toilet. Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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I think this the link Jon Boy is talking about. And yes, it does drasically reduce the number of "pre-approved" junk that comes in the mail.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I rip off the part with identifying information on it and cut several slits one way, leaving a bit of intact paper on the end to hold all the strips together. Then I cut the other way. The result is tiny confetti.
When I'm feeling lazier, I'll rip it into a few pieces and put one in my trash, one in the recycling, and one in the trash can in the communal bathroom.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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quote: Although, on occasion, I have torn up the identifiable as me information into teeny tiny bits (much smaller than that guys tearing up) and flushed them down the toilet.
As a member of the civil engineering community, I do not recommend using your toilet as a way of destroying credit card applications. No matter what 4-letter word you might use when finding yet another one in your mailbox, it still doesn't belong in the toilet.
posted
I shred them and then put them out in the dirty diaper bag. If you want to brave the funk of forty thousand years be my guest!
Posts: 601 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I use one of the shredders at work. We just got news ones too. These things are awesome. They sound like they are jet engine powered and shred paper to a dust. For giggles we put a quarter down the slot one time. It was never seen again.
Posts: 2208 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Why not just save up a bunch of them and then make a little fire out of them in the backyard . I like fire. <----pyromaniac
Posts: 2054 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I expect that everyone has already explored the rest of the stuff on Cockeyed.com (ElJay's initial link is to a page on the site), but if not it's well worth checking out.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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