When we check credit for our clients, or even if we are not going to pull the credit, we recommend to all of our clients to call 888-567-8688 or go online to https://www.optoutprescreen.com and sign up for this free service to stop the credit bureaus from selling your personal and private information.  Everyone seems to know the “do not call” list, but it appears that very few people have heard of the opt out list for credit reports.  Signing up for this list ensures that your credit profile and personal information is not sold by the credit bureaus to 3rd parties. 

With all the identity theft and credit fraud that goes on in this country, we as responsible mortgage brokers (or Realtors) should be protective of our clients private information and should take every step possible to ensure their privacy.  In addition to having our clients sign up for this service, there’s a simple checklist we use to make sure we are doing our part in protecting client privacy. We:

• Shred all unnecessary docs that have, address, soc #’s or acct information
  
• When we go home at the end of the day, we do not leave docs with client info on our desks.  We clean our desks and lock our files.. (we don’t leave things out for the cleaning crew)
  
• Make sure our screen savers are password protected.
  
• Password protect (or encrypt) any email that has private client data.
  
• We are mindful of conversations we have with colleagues about clients while in public places, you never know who is sitting in the next restaurant booth over.
  
• Make sure your staff is doing all of the above.
  

The biggest vulnerability comes from support personnel and staff, who may not share the same level of responsibility as you.  Review these simple items with them and don’t tolerate disorganization that can comprise a clients personal information. 

Now go to it…