BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU®
NEWS RELEASE
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tom Joyce, Better Business Bureau Serving
Chicago & Northern Illinois, 312.245.2643; tjoyce@chicago.bbb.org
Better
Business Bureau Free 'Shred It & Forget It' Event in Rockford and
Chicago
Chicago, IL - April 11, 2013 -
The Better Business Bureau serving Chicago and Northern Illinois (BBB), in
conjunction with various government agencies, invites consumers and businesses
to protect their identities by shredding unwanted personal, financial or
confidential documents for FREE at the annual "Shred It and Forget
It" Shredder Day.
Rockford Event:
Saturday, April 20th, 2013
SuperShredders (behind Barbara
Olson Center of Hope)
3206 N. Central Ave
Rockford, IL
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
For more info call -
815-963-2222
Chicago Event:
Saturday, June 22, 2013,
United Center
1901 W. Madison Street Lot E
Chicago, IL 60612
NEW TIME!!! 9:00am- 1:00pm (Gates close at 12:45pm)
Hosts of the annual event
include the Better Business Bureau along with the City of Chicago, Chicago
Police Department, FBI, FTC, Illinois Attorney General's Office, and United
States Postal Inspection Service. Shredding and recycling services will be
provided by Acme Document Destruction, Beaver Shredding Inc., Chicago Shred
Authority, Cintas Document Management, Shred-It, Inc., and Vintage Tech
Recyclers.
As of January 1, 2012 the
Electronic Products Recycling & Reuse Act requires people to
recycle their electronic devices including televisions, monitors, printers
and computers, rather than allow them to be disposed of in a landfill.
TVs, monitors, laptops, PCs, servers, data storage devices, printers, fax/copy
machines, cell phones, VCRs, DVD players, video cameras and game consoles are
among the types of electronic equipment that will be collected for recycling at
the event. To learn more about the electronics you can recycle at this event,
visit www.chicagoshreds.com
Participants are asked to limit
the material they want shred to 10 boxes of documents per vehicle. There will
also be free home shredders given away during the event every 30 minutes. You
can register online to win a free shredder at www.chicagoshreds.com
Representatives from the
participating organizations will be available at "Shred It and Forget
It" on June 22rd to offer guidelines for shredding documents and to
answer questions about how to keep your personal information safe.
Here are some suggestions for
deciding how long to keep personal financial information:
- A good rule of thumb is to keep
all tax returns and supporting documentation for seven years. The IRS has
three years from your tax-filing date to audit, and has six years to
challenge a claim.
- Keep credit card statements for
seven years if tax related expenses are documented.
- Keep paycheck stubs for one
year. Be sure to cross reference the paycheck stub to the W-2 form.
- Be sure to keep bank statements
and canceled checks for at least one year.
- Bills should be kept for one
year or until the canceled check has been returned. Receipts for large
ticket items should be kept for insurance purposes.
- Home improvement receipts
should be kept for six years or permanently.
- Items such as birth
certificates, social security cards, insurance policies, titles or wills
should be kept permanently in a safety deposit box.
- If you are going to dispose of
documents with sensitive information, be sure to SHRED!
More information about the
"Shred It and Forget It" Shredder Day event can be found at www.chicagoshreds.com
For more information on how to
protect your identity, visit www.bbb.org