Protect Your Valuables
If you carry around any personal information with you such as credit cards, insurance cards, diaries or contact details then make sure you look after these carefully, and never leave your wallet or bags unattended.  If you are staying away from home make sure you keep your valuables with you at all times unless the hotel has a safe in which you can deposit them, and don’t just leave them in your hotel room with the rest of your luggage.  Try to avoid taking any credit cards and other valuables to the gym with you, as you will have to leave your bag/wallet whilst you are using the facilities, and although most gyms have lockers they are usually not very secure and can be targeted by thieves.  Never carry around key identity documents such as passports or drivers licenses unless you really need them, as this can make them vulnerable to getting lost or stolen.

Home Security
At home make sure your property is protected against casual intruders by fitting secure locks to all of the access points (doors, windows, gates etc) and making sure you lock the house up securely if you are going out.  Don’t leave a spare key anywhere outside your property, as thieves are good at guessing typical hiding places, and if you do need to make key copies for family or friends make sure they look after them and tell them to alert you immediately if these get lost of stolen.

Identity protection services provide a number of measures that can protect your credit report from identity thieves and prevent them from applying for products fraudulently in your name:

•    Credit Report Fraud Alerts – Fraud Alerts will be placed on your credit reports with the main credit agencies Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, and this will ensure that lenders confirm all applications for credit made in your name with you personally before processing.

•    Credit Report Freeze – some identity theft protection services will help you to freeze your credit report completely, and this will prevent anyone (including yourself) applying for credit in your name, and will also prevent third parties from looking at your credit details and sending you those annoying and unnecessary pre-approved credit offers in the mail.

•    Credit Report Monitoring – Identity theft protection services will monitor your credit reports for you, and alert you immediately either through an email or SMS message if any suspicious changes have taken place.

•    Credit Reports – identity theft protection services can provide you with easy access to copies of your credit reports, so you do not have to go to each individual credit agency, and you can use this to check through all of your credit history for any errors or suspicious activity, and also review your credit score and how to improve it into the future.