FIRST STEPS

Take everything out of your wallet and sort it all, with an eye to paring it way back. Remove old receipts, shopping lists, business cards, single-store credit cards that rarely get used, coffee shop punch cards that you’ll likely never fill up, and so on. If it’s not something you’ll need often or in an emergency, keep it at home.

Create a safe and secure storage system at home for the occasional wallet items you’ve removed. You can put extra cash there, too. Grab cards or items when needed, and when done with your errand, return the cards to their secure spot.

Consumer advocates advise making photocopies (or taking smartphone photos) of the front and back of all your cards, so you know whom to contact if they go missing.

THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T KEEP IN YOUR WALLET

Here are the 10 things you should remove from your wallet and store in a safe place, depending on how often you need to access them:

• Social Security card. You do not need it for daily use, and criminals could use it to open lines of credit in your name or sell it to another criminal.
• Multiple credit cards and credit card receipts. Choose one credit card and one debit card you wish to use the most, and leave the others at home. Multiple credit cards are a gold mine for criminals. They can easily charge items online or send runners to different stores.
• Checkbook, or even one blank check. The days when you might need one for a purchase are mostly in the past.
• Work ID card.
• Passport or passport card.
• List of your passwords.
• Gift card not fully redeemed.
• Birth certificate.
• Library card. It sounds benign, but a crook can always check out lots of books and sell them for a buck or two apiece, Clay warns. 
• House key. Thieves could find your address from the contents of a stolen wallet.

Reprinted from AARP.