A guide to document shredding services

T hese days, you may find you have so many personal documents you no longer need to keep, but are worried about someone getting a hold of your sensitive information. You can of course attempt to shred and dispose of everything yourself, but that is risking exposure. Or you can take your documents destined for destruction to a professional shredding company. There are many out there, but some of the best and most reputable are Iron Mountain, Shred-It, and ProShred. Even when deciding on a professional company, there are a few things to consider. You must first determine your price range. Then find the method that most suits you and your budget. Some people prefer what’s known as ‘off-site’ shredding. This consists of the company picking up the documents from your place of business, and taking them to an off-site location for shredding and disposal. Iron Mountain would be the best choice if that’s what you’re looking to have done, as they are the cheapest of the three companies mentioned. Other folks prefer to have their documents shredded in their presence. That is a service called ‘on-site’ shredding, where the company will come and shred your documents at your location and safely dispose of them. In this case, there is one company above that offers this service solely, and they have the best price of the three.  ProShred is the cheapest when it comes to that, so they may be what you’re looking for if that service is something you’re interested in. If those still seem too expensive for you, there is a third method available. This involves you taking your documents to a facility where the shredding is done, and dropping them off. Shred-It offers this service at a substantially cheaper rate than the other companies. Overall, this seems to be the most cost effective method of shredding your documents, when it comes to hiring a professional company to do it for you. With these services comes an inspection certificate and verification of security, as well as a finalized certificate of destruction and disposal at the end.