In a natural disaster or crisis your first priority is the safety of you and your family, having your finances and critical information safe gives you one less thing to worry about during difficult times.

In our digital age, it’s a lot easier to get someone's personal information and also easier to use it. Identity theft is a serious crime, which happens when someone uses information about you without your permission. You are responsible for what the thief does while using your information. The thief could be buying things with your credit card, applying for new credit, and stealing your tax refund. All of which could disrupt your financial plan.

Credit scores and how they are determined can be confusing. Your credit score is calculated by plugging the information from your credit report into a credit score formula. You may have many credit scores based on who provided the score. Bad credit can haunt you and your credit history for decades. Credit reports may affect mortgage rates, credit card approvals, apartment requests and even your job application.