5 Reasons to Love Professional Shred Services

We want to share the love this Valentine’s Day and tell you five reasons you’ll love professional shred services!

1. Professional shred services can save you a lot of time so you can focus on things you love!

No one loves to sit in an uncomfortable chair shredding five papers at a time! Not only is this time consuming, it’s boring. When you have documents professionally shredded, the only thing you’ll need to do is lift your finger to point out where the documents you want shredded are!

2. The more, the better.

If you have a personal shredder at home, you’re probably keeping up with the documents you need shredded at least once a month right? If not, it makes it harder to shred a bulk amount of documents.

With professional shred services, we can take as much or as little shred you want! Whether you have 1-100 boxes needing shred, we can handle it.

3. Better security and your customers will love you for it!

How many times have we seen on the news that a company had a breech in security? How many times have we heard of identity theft in certain companies?

When you have professional shred services, the liability transfers from you to us! You and your customers will be able to breathe knowing that their information is safe and in the hands of a professional.

You can also research how small certain companies shred their paper. The smaller, the more secure.

4. It’s more sustainable, so your eco-friendly customers will be pleased!

If you didn’t know, all professional shred companies recycle their paper after it’s been shredded!

Usually if you shred at home, you’re throwing the shred away afterwards. When you shred professionally, all of the shred is recycled after, making it more eco-friendly!

5. One less thing on your to-do list.

This can make it easier on you to have a productive day or maybe even your employees!

Instead of paying employees to shred documents for hours, you can pay them to do other productive work during those hours and have a shred company pick up those documents.


Access Records Management takes pride in making sure your documents are secure! Click here to see how our document destruction service works or call 816-331-7200 for more information!

How to Prevent Fraud: Financial Documents

Fraud is everywhere, leading to more digital documentation and less documented on paper. As convenient as this is, there are still some documentation that we receive in the mail or at work that has our personal data on it but we think nothing of it. This personal data could be essential to our identity, which is why we need to protect it. According to the Insurance Information Institute, in America, 12% of people are a victim of Bank fraud and in Missouri alone, 820,000 of the population were a victim to identity theft.

Top Financial Documents to Destroy to Prevent Fraud

To commit fraud, a hacker or identity thief would only need your name, DOB, phone number and/or address. With that information alone they can create new credit cards, a new identity, file fraudulent tax returns and more. To protect your financial status and prevent fraud, here are the top financial documents to destroy.

1. Bank Statements and Pay stubs

Though it may seem that bank statements and pay stubs are harmless, it still contains your name, address, possibly your bank account number ( either partial or whole number) and how much money you have in your account. These are all things that hackers can easily impersonate you with if it fell into the wrong hands. Your pay stub could also contain your social security number. These items should definitely be in your shred pile.

2. Credit/Debit Cards and Credit/Debit Card Numbers

How many of us have cut up our credit card with scissors, threw it in the trash and called it good? Well, it’s not very good. Compromised cards are often those that are put back together . It can contain your card number, your name and possibly your address. Decrease risks of credit card fraud by shredding them.

3. Old Tax Returns

Shredding your old tax returns is the best way to prevent tax fraud. Throwing away your tax returns can put you at high risk of fraud with information like your social security number, address, name, income and place of employment all on one paper. If someone stole your information they could apply for credit cards, open up bank accounts, apply for a tax return under your name, etc.

4. Junk Mail

Junk mail may be junk to you but a gold mine to an identity thief. If you’re currently throwing away credit card offers or loan offers that comes in the mail, you could be putting yourself at risk. If that junk mail got into the wrong hands, someone could open up an account in your name.

5. Canceled/Voided Checks

Have you ever seen the movie Blank Check? How often do you void a check? What do you do with it afterwards? Do you throw it away or leave it laying around the house? Voided checks are an easy way for someone to access your routing number and account number. Your name and address could also be on that check making it a high risk item for identity theft. If you write a check, make sure you’re writing a check to a trusted source or pay cash, if possible.

6. ATM receipts

Although these little things like to fly out of your car window, they are just as important as any other financial document. If fallen in the wrong hands you could be at high risk of identity theft. Account numbers and routing numbers are often exposed which makes it important to keep a tight grip on ATM receipts.

What have we learned from this? When in doubt, shred! If your name, address and phone number is on it, shred it. If your bank account information is on it, shred it! What better company could you ask to shred your documents besides Access Records Management? We take pride in making sure your documents are safe and we like to provide our customers with the knowledge they need to keep their documents safe.

Store or Shred?

As tax time has come and gone for most of us, there are some issues to settle. First, you save your forms, receipts, bills, and other supporting documents. Well maybe so or maybe not! My CPA says to store stuff for seven years just like the IRS would prefer, but if it is your personal taxes, you really do not need to save all the utility bills and such in storage. But I am a cautious hoarder, I keep mostly all for at least a couple years; particularly if it has anything to do with the business and I certainly keep all my business records for seven at least. Now I read that several experts are saying keep them for at least ten years; I agree there are valid reasons to do this in some cases especially if you file complicated returns.

Then you need to see if you do need to get rid of some of it out of your storage or files. I and some of my colleagues recently found our long term storage space would no longer be available. This led to the Storage or Shred question. The answer was as usual both. Certain documents need to be available for a longer time and had to find a new home. Those important documents and files that are not needed should almost certainly be destroyed. These days I am against burning so Shredding is the obvious answer whether personal or commercial.

Luckily, Access Records Management, is located in South Kansas City, Missouri, has an answer to all these problems. Access Records Management has a secure facility for large or small volumes of documents. We also do shredding on a one time or contract basis, both sealed bin pickup and client drop-off. You can drop off a bag or boxes of your personal stuff, and we will shred and recycle it all at competitive rates.

Remember Access Records Management, 126 E. Hargis St. Belton, MO. 816-331-7200 for an appointment or more information. info@accessrecordsmanagement.net

All Shredding Companies Are NOT Created Equal

All paper and document management companies claim to have great customer service, right? But are they going the extra mile for you, the customer? Here at Access Records Management, we try to live by this motto in many different ways.

With all the beautiful weather here lately, we decided to officially put winter behind us and get out the power washer to spray out all the empty shred bins back at our facility. Over winter, the wheels and sides can get “grimy” with all the sand and ice melt on the sidewalks.  The last thing we want to do is to track this mess into our client’s office environment and make a mess. So we spent an entire Saturday power washing both inside and out of all our empty shred bins. As they get rotated out with clean bins, we will again power wash the bins that have been exposed to the winter elements. It’s the little things like that, that sets us apart from the competition.

Another motto we live by each and every day is to always go the right thing for the customer. Many times, we will be talking with a new prospective client about their paper shredding needs at their office and we discover that we can save them money by placing a slightly larger shred bin. This bin takes up the same floor space as the popular executive console, but is about 16 inches taller and it tapers up as it gets taller. This shred bin holds twice the paper as the executive console and therefore decreases the trips Access Records needs to make to service the account. Over a year’s time, this really saves clients’ money over their current shredding vendor. Access Records Management cares more about customer satisfaction and your bottom line.  If you are looking for a paper shredding company that truly has your best interests in mind then give Access Records Management a call today at (816) 331-7200.

How about making a New Year’s Resolution that you will actually keep? And help the environment!!

new-years-resolutionAre you that small office with a dozen or so employees & everyone has their own small office paper shredder at their workstation?

Are you spending 10 minutes or more at the end of every shift shredding your confidential paper that was created & no longer needed?

Do you & your colleagues feel that your To Do List never quite gets done by days end?

Is your organization throwing all that shred into the dumpster because it’s deemed unrecyclable?

With this being a New Year, maybe it’s time to look at new procedures for your company’s data & document management needs. Access Records Management of Kansas City, MO is a full service document management company that provides paper shredding & document management solutions to businesses both large & small. Rarely, if ever, have I seen a company save money on their paper shredding & document management budget by doing the shredding themselves with small office shredders. In today’s fast paced business world, professionals simply don’t have the time to be shredding their own sensitive, confidential documents.

If the office manager adds up the initial cost of those personal use shredders & the labor associated with doing all shredding in house, plus replacing a few machines that burn up, then it’s easy to see that it’s much less hassle & expensive to use a paper shredding service. Access Records Management provides the collection bins free of charge & we offer weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly shred pick-up service. Shred service plans start as low as $15 per month & your business will receive a free certificate of destruction.

For more information, please call 816.331.7200.

On Site or Off Site Paper Shredding Comparison

Offsite vs Onsite Paper ShreddingAll businesses and most individuals are inundated with paper.

Data destruction (paper shredding) is becoming a business essential. It is something that almost every business and even individuals are doing more frequently and in a larger volume. It is not good enough these days to simply “throw it away.”  Government regulations, identity thieves, and corporate espionage dictate the way we should dispose of much of our unneeded information.  Document handling should be a disciplined procedure. Data leaks can be happen very easily.  Some years ago I discarded several non confidential pages in my recycling box. I was still in my office when the “non English speaking” cleaning crew began emptying the trash in my office.  I suddenly realized the cleaner was reading the pages he had picked up from the box. It was a lesson for me that I do not know who is seeing my trash.

If you need to get rid of one sheet of paper, an inexpensive strip shredder would work.  For any sensitive document I would suggest a crosscut shredder.  But there is only rarely a single sheet.  .  Even businesses that scan virtually all documents into digital form end up with a lot of paper to shred.  While some documents are saved for backup evidentiary proof at least temporarily, eventually you will need to do something with all those files and notes.

Recycling is  much preferred today rather  than “throwing away.”  But just recycling or trashing brings us back to the problem: who might see or take that material for purposes that would get you into trouble and/or be illegal.  The answer is almost the same as for the single sheet: shredding or other destruction (burning?). Burning can be dangerous, environmentally unsound, and possibly illegal.  Doing your own shredding is messy and leaves trash that is not always easy to recycle.  Plus from my own experience, many of the “home and small business” shredders from office supply stores will burnout if used too much. This leads to the commercial shredding service option.

There are many commercial shredding services. They generally fall into either onsite shredding or off site.  Some people like onsite shredding because they want to witness the shred.  However onsite shredding trucks are generally noisy, may take up needed loading dock space, customer parking spaces, and puts out noxious exhaust fumes. Also opening bins or containers outdoors may lead to the blowing of sensitive documents or shred.  So I generally recommend offsite shredding as easier, safer, and greener alternative. Additionally, plant based paper shredding is generally about 30% cheaper than companies offering on-site document shredding.

Access Records Management (ARM) uses locked bins to collect and transport your shredable data.  ARM offers three bin options. The small bin will hold about 40 gallons, mid-size 65 gallons, and the large 90 gallons of paper shred.  These bins are locked when put on the users premises.  The small bins are permanent and the contents are transferred in the user facility to a locked transport bin.  The larger size bins are exchanged in the user facility and only opened in the secure shredding facility. ARM certifies its shredding in its secure facility. ARM will pickup and recycle a minimum of four 30 gallons bags of your internally shredded paper for a small pick-up fee.

If you’re concerned with privacy and liability, you can rest assured. Access Records Management, runs comprehensive background checks on all employees which include local & nationwide criminal checks. Pre-employment & on-going random drug checks, Credit report monitoring, as well as a MVR.(motor vehicle report)

This combined with our industry leading security ensures you never have think twice about  the shredding of your documents. From the moment the shred cart leaves your building, it is fully insured & secure with ARM.

So shred OFFSITE with Access Records Management!

To learn more, please call Access Records at 816.331.7200 or contact us today.