Medicare card
It’s not unusual to have Medicare cards in your wallet. Unfortunately, most Medicare cards have Social Security numbers printed on them, which means they can be used as tools for identity and financial fraud.
The good news is that there’s a new law according to which Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have to remove SSNs from Medicare cards. The final stage of the Medicare card replacement with the new ones without SSN details should have ended in 2019 but some people may still have their old cards. In this case, these have to be destroyed as soon as their replacement is received.
While waiting for the new Medicare card to arrive, don’t keep it in your wallet. You can replace it with a photocopy of the card, should you need to use it, with a blacked-out Social Security number.
5 thoughts on “9 Items Retirees Should Never Keep in Their Wallet”
The new Medicare cards do not have SS# anymore.
Hello, thanks for the information, long time ago I dropped my Medicare card still with my social security number, obviously I got a new one, but I am still at risk ?
Research shows that once a person relies on electronic currency they increase their spending habits significantly. For sticking to a budget, and putting something away in savings, use of cash is the best policy. You will not spend more than you had planned if you bring along the appropriate amount of cash plus only a “little” extra, and vow to keep the credit cards for emergencies. There is also the aspect of the tangible quality of cash that has a much greater impression on the spender who is trying to be thrifty, as many seniors should be, compared to the ease with which a consumer can rack-up debt with electronic currency or credit cards.
The new Medicare cards do NOT have SSNs on them.
It is easy to ask your bank to remove your address from your personal checks.
Who in the world would carry a birth certificate around?? Or a Social Security card–haven’t we memorized those numbers by now??
I never carry ANY of the things that were advised against carrying in this article.
Cash is Freedom. Most independent Latino businesses only transact in cash.