In today’s Consumer Alert segment, we talked about how you can prepare and keep your documents safe in case there is another big storm.
On September 28, Hurricane Ian made landfall and the storm surged that flooded many homes and roads.
Homeowners are advised to keep their documents in a safe or secure lockbox. However, if a surge were to happen is best to have them organized in a grab-and-go binder.
What should you put in your binder?
- Hard-to-replace government documents like birth certificates, Social Security cards, marriage licenses and passports
- Estate documents and wills
- Banking information, insurance policies, home and car titles, contracts, and medical directives.
- Make a copy of your driver’s license, credit cards (including the back so you’ll have the phone numbers in case you need to report a lost or stolen card), health insurance and prescription cards, and other IDs from work, school, businesses or organizations.
- Also, don’t forget important contacts. In the age of smartphones, most of us rely on our address book phones to save phone numbers and addresses. But in an emergency, you might not have access to your phone. Keep those key contacts at easy reach in your grab & go binder.
- A simple three-ring binder available at your local office supply store is a great starting point for designing your custom planner. Use plastic sheet protectors, plastic pockets, tabbed dividers and envelopes to make your binder useful, neat, and ready at a moment’s notice.
Watch the video above for more information.