In order to qualify for a no income verification home equity loan you will, in most cases, need good credit and a high credit score. Expect to pay a higher rate for this type of loan as opposed to a traditional loan in which you have to document your income. Also, even though a no income verification loan does not require you to document your income, some lenders may require that you have a certain dollar value of assets on hand which must be verified. Not all lenders have this requirement though - some lenders offer a program called NINA which stands for "no income no assets" meaning you do not have to document either. Loan guidelines and rates vary from lender to lender so it is a good idea to shop around to increase your chances of getting best deal available to you.

For more information on no income verification home equity loans, or to compare rates and programs of home equity loan lenders visit http://www.equityloansource.com

6. Consider changing your phone number to a silent number. This will considerably minimise number of calls you get from both tele marketers and identity thieves. There are other advantages to having a silent number as well. Generally a silent number tends to increase your privacy.

7. Never store you PIN numbers or passwords near you plastic cards or account details.

Yes, I know. You want to keep your PIN number close to your plastic card, just in case you forget it. You may even disguise it as another number. Guess what. If a thief gets hold of your wallet, they will try any numbers they can find in it, to steal money from your plastic card account. It's true, after a few unsuccessful attempts account is usually locked. But even that would inconvenience you, to say least. And why risk losing your hard-earned money?

8. Don't use credit cards in restaurants or other places where your credit card can be taken away from your sight for even a minute. Before you know it, your card could be scanned and used by thieves to buy all sorts of goods, particularly via telephone shopping, mail order, and online shopping.

9. And finally, there is a huge and growing subject of Internet identity theft. You can read our article on Internet identity theft at www.credit-report-a-z.com/internet-identity-theft.html.

We obviously didn't cover everything here. But hopefully this article opened your eyes to some easy, common-sense, ways to prevent someone from stealing your identity and/or your money.

Will it guarantee that you never fall a victim? No, but it will go a long way towards making a life of a thief very difficult. Usually, if you make life difficult for them they will move on to an easier target.

There is one more thing you should seriously consider. Checking your credit report regularly. It's not uncommon for an identity thief to apply for a loan, or a credit card, under your name. Of course, they have no intention of ever paying it back. All other issues aside, this will affect your credit rating and borrowing capacity for years, unless you clean it up quickly.

There are inexpensive services available that will monitor your credit files all year round and notify you minute anything in your credit file changes. Or you may prefer to check your credit report yourself every few months.

Oh, and those shocking statistics I mentioned earlier? According to recent studies, up to 7,000,000 people became a victim of identity theft in past 12 months. That's more than 19,000 people a day. Don't become a statistic! Do something about it today.

Andrew Obremski is the owner of www.credit-report-a-z.com, a web site devoted to information about credit reports, identity theft, debt, and other personal finance topics.