This month, we celebrated seven years in our home. Seven years. It’s hard to believe we’ve been here seven years. Even harder to believe that we will celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary in the spring.
Knowing what I know now about, well everything, I sometimes wonder how we got so lucky when we moved into our home. We didn’t know what we were doing when we bought our home. We thought we were being careful, but looking back we were totally winging it. Lucky for us, we did well. But two kids and a lot of stuff later, we could use more space (couldn’t everyone). As much as I love our home (and even more so our neighbors), I dream about extra square footage.
When buying a home, there are a lot of moving parts. In between all of the obviously logistics little things can easily slip by the wayside. But those little things are exactly what the bad guys are looking for. One little slip could mean an in for identity theft or even draining a bank account. Since that is the last thing you need when buying a new home (or any time really), here are some tips from LifeLock about how you can protect yourself when buying a new home.
5 Tips To Safeguard Your Identity When Buying A New Home
- Store papers containing identifying personal information in a safe while moving. Better yet, put them in a safe deposit box until you are settled. Chances are there will be all kinds of people coming and going when you move in – movers, painters, delivery people, etc. Don’t leave personal information lying around, it is better to be safe than sorry.
- Review bills with a fine-tooth comb. You should always be on top of your purchases and make sure you recognize all items on credit card statements, but it is particularly important to monitor things during a big move. Because you are probably making more purchase than usual from new places, it is easier for something to slip through.
- Check the Better Business Bureau for reviews of movers (and painters, and contractors etc.) before allowing them in your home. Anyone who has open access to your personal belongings should be able to provide references from other happy customers, if not, why not?
- Update your address. It isn’t enough to just update your address with the post office. Make sure you update your address with creditors, banks, etc. – anyone who might send personal information in the mail as soon as you take ownership of your new home.
- Replace the locks on your new home ASAP. Previous tenants could potentially still have a set of keys. And not just the previous tenants, others trusted by the family like nanny’s, cleaning people, etc. could have access to your home without your knowledge. Change your locks.
For more tips to keep your identity safe, play the LifeLock trivia game on Facebook. Not only will you learn some great tips, you will also be entered for a chance to win prizes! This month nine winners will receive a one-year LifeLock membership and one grand prize winner will win $1,000!
This is a partnered post as a LifeLock Ambassador. However all opinions are my own.
These are great tips, thank you! We are thinking of buying, so this is good timing.
Replacing the locks was always a HUGE priority for me. It wasn’t so much because of the old owners, but because I had no way of knowing how many random people or neighbors had keys!
Thanks for these helpful tips.
Great tips. I am still renting so these are good things to know when I do start looking to buy my first home in a couple years. Thank you!