When should you give your Social Security number and when should you not?

According to Clark Howard,  DO NOT  give it out unless it’s absolutely, positively required for what he’s doing. Companies and institutions ask for our Social Security numbers like their handing out a piece of candy. Unfortunately, they do a mediocre to terrible job of securing the number, depending on the industry.

Kiplinger magazine has compiled a list of the 10 worst places to give out your Social Security number.
Topping the list is any college or university. Clark recalls when Social Security numbers were used as your student ID number and they were posted everywhere on campus. The consumer champ even had a professor who posted grades outside his office by Social Security number.

“The second worst place to give out your Social Security number is in the banking industry. Unfortunately, there’s no way around this one; if you want to open an account, you have no choice but to divulge the digits.

Making four separate entries on the list are hospitals, medical businesses, health insurers and medical offices. These kinds of places always want your Social Security number and Clark always leaves it blank. Their thinking is if you don’t pay, they want to be able to turn you over to a collection agency. But their security is like Swiss cheese with holes, and medical identity theft is huge problem.”

Clark recently had a diagnostic test and was handed pre-printed forms where his Social Security number was printed in four places. He has no idea how they got it. Anybody who sees his records now has access to his Social Security number.

Other places where you shouldn’t give out your number include government at all levels and volunteer charity organizations. When it comes to the latter, the non-profits need to run background checks on you. But they vary greatly in level of sophistication and your info may not be properly secured.

You know the conclusion to this story.

Freeze your credit file and you won’t have to worry about the fact that your number is floating around all over the place!