If most of you reading this are like me (which is unlikely because my mom always told me I was special) you receive a lot of pre-approved credit card offers in the mail. Do you typically just throw it away? If you do, don’t. The advice I am about to give might seem overly cautious, but more and more people are going through trash to retrieve information to steal identities. What should you do then? Good question. What I do is to take the response card and anything with personal information on it, and put it through the shredder. This way, no one can go through your trash, fill out the forms, and receive a pre-approved credit card in your name. Taking this measure to protect your identity and credit score can go a very long way. Better yet, you can also do what I have done, in an attempt to cut down on the pre-approved offers, is to take yourself off the list. You can “opt out” by going to http://optoutprescreen.com/ and taking yourself off the mailing lists for pre-approved offers. If for some reason you can’t opt out online, you can also call their hotline at 1-888-5OPTOUT.

And remember, keep reading to increase your credit score. I received a report from one subscriber (aka a friend) who has increased his score by 40+ points in just a few months from tips that have appeared on this blog.