Pages

Wednesday, 5 September 2012

Military Life And The Problems With Keeping Track Of Personal Documents

By Bryant S. Cole


Military life and the problems with keeping track of personal documents can be an administrative challenge for any soldier. It is enough that not every young man or woman serving in the armed services are good at keeping their records organized. However, this can be further complicated by the fact that they are frequently moved to different states or countries, depending on what is needed of them.

It can be very difficult for soldiers to try to maintain a proper filing system with all of their documents. Many of these documents contain extremely sensitive information, such as bank account information, Social Security information, medical records, and other various types of private info that nobody else should be able to access.

When soldiers go on long deployments, they don't always have the ability to access their important records. These records can be a goldmine for those involved in identity theft. If someone knows that a soldier is going to be out of the area for several months, a thief could gain access to that soldier's information and use his or her credit cards long before the soldier will ever find out.

Many active duty soldiers prefer using an electronic database and will then shred any hard copies of records that they have. This is usually recommended for information like medical or financial records. But it's also recommended to maintain two or three copies of a record and keep them in multiple places in case one gets damaged or is stolen.

An excellent option for many soldiers is a safe deposit box. The downside of this, however, is obvious. The soldier is only going to be able to access their box to evaluate or add to the contents when he or she finds themselves in that part of the world again. This might work for some people who deploy and return to the same location on a regular basis, but not every soldier has that convenience.

If you decide to go the route of getting a safety deposit box, try to make sure someone lives nearby so they can access it for you. This person should be very reliable and someone you can trust. If the soldier needs to get something out of the box or wants to add to it, he or she can contact this designated individual to do it for them. Some soldiers pick siblings to be in this role rather than parents or spouses. However, there are issues involved in choosing anyone in many cases to be honest and upfront with your personal belongings.

Another option is to go with a document storage service. These services tend to offer more advantages for various reasons. They are typically accessible 24 hours a day, which means you can access your documents whenever you may need them. Some services are specifically tailored to serving active duty soldiers.

There are several issues that crop up when trying to keep track of sensitive documents while in the military. The best option is to maintain these items in a way so that the soldier is the only person who has direct access to them for obvious safety reasons. Services that are run by professionals are generally the best ones to go with. Even though we don't want to think about it, relationships will change over time, and you may not want someone else handling your personal documents if you can use a trustworthy service instead.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment