One of the very best ways to avoid identity theft is to purchase a good quality shredding criss cross cutter. I have heard that if you just use the single shredder certain, knowledgeable people can paste items back together and utilize them and steal your identity. Basically everything that has any personal information whatsoever should be shredded. People have been known to rummage through garbage cans at businesses and residences. Always shred items that have account numbers, social security numbers, credit card numbers, drivers license numbers, employee numbers, debit cards. Whatever you do not want to shred such as bank statements, cancelled checks etc, make sure it is in a locked safe or filing cabinet. In this day and age, one can never be too careful!