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Junk mail broke my shredder, wtf

Lyfer

Lyfer

Diamond Member
After buying my first house last year me and the lady's junk mail has nearly doubled (mainly CC offers). We recently purchased a "heavy use" shredder and it choked up today on a few feeds. There was a smokey smell coming out of it so I had to unplug it.

WTF are they putting in these envelopes now a days, rocks? magnets?

/end of rant
 
Was this your first time using a paper shredder? You need to divide the shredding capacity listed on the shredder by 4, meaning if your heavy duty shredder says it can shred 12 pages of paper in one go, it can really only shred 3. When you dump an entire CC offer letter envelop and all into a shredder, you're not looking at 2 pages of paper, you're looking at 6-8 pages because the pages are folded inside the envelop.

You need to take the CC offer letter out of the envelope and shred only the page containing your name and address, nothing else.

Ps. You can't shred an entire box of junk mail in one go, you'll kill the shredder.
 
I broken a few a shredders in my day... after purchasing a few I settled on a mid-range home use fellowes shredder and decided to open all mail and only shred the contents which need to be properly disposed (aka name/address portions) the rest goes in regular recycle.

I also read somewhere it doesn't hurt to put olive oil on some paper prior to shredding sometimes in order to keep the shredder properly lubed? anyone have any advice on this? does it really matter if you go out and buy the official shredder lube at $6-$8 for a small 1oz container?
 
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Some bulk mailers have put coins in the envelope. You just throw stuff in without looking at it?
 
You shred everything with a name and address? You realize your name and address are of public record if you own your home, right? Or the fact that it's not hard to figure out the names of occupants, and the address is right on the mailbox.

Shit, I throw junk mail right into the trash bin unopened.
 
Make sure you sign up for all the minimum sharing from all your banks n stuff. I think that helps keep the junk mail down. They don't tell you.. but I also specifically told my CC company NOT to send me those blank checks.. damn things showed up every couple of weeks.

I like to resend junk mail back in the pre-paid envelopes when I have a few seconds to spare.. a piece of lunchmeat w/ mayo once in a while.. that ought to be nice and ripe when it gets back to them.
 
OP, did you read the manual before using? all shredders have a maximum number of pages it can do at once and if you feed unopened envelopes you will exceed that number and burn up the motor.
 
Baked said:
You need to take the CC offer letter out of the envelope and shred only the page containing your name and address, nothing else.
Click to expand...

Usually, I'll just tear off the part that has my name and address on it, shred that, and put the rest into recycling. Be wary of some mailings, though, as they like to slip sample cards in there (stuck on with rubber cement, which will gum up the shredder blades), which are heavier. AARP likes to send out plastic membership cards, in their invitation for membership mailings, which are nearly as thick as a credit card, and DEFINITELY need to be fed into the shredder by themselves!
 
BoomerD said:
Fuck that...we shred EVERYTHING! (if it has a name and address on it)
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When I bought my house and turned on phone service, I made up a name for the white pages--allowed to be different from the account name. Well, that led to Ma Bell selling that name+address and now my credit reports have this fake name as an 'Also Goes By' name because of credit card companies sending offers to the fake name.
 
why are you shredding junk mail?

We have a recycling bin right under the neighbourhood mailbox. The municipacity put it there specifically for people to dump their junk mail right after they pick up the mail.
 
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sdifox said:
why are you shredding junk mail?

We have a recycling bin right under the neighbourhood mailbox. The municipacity put it there specifically for people to dump their junk mail right after they pick up the mail.
Click to expand...

Never heard of identity theft, eh?
 
Junk mail like spam => trash.

CC offers/Balance transfer checks => shred or me just tearing pieces of paper for an hour.

Bought a nice shredder at Costco that can shred heavy duty for 12 min straight. It has an over heating safety mechanism which shuts down the shredder automatically for 20 min.

If someone really wants to steal your identity, it can be done without going through your mail. Rogue workers from NSA/google/DMV/Doctor's offices/your employer/restaurant waiters can steal your identity/cc info easily. Just look at all the hacking of University/Hospital records and CC processing centers.
 
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