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Important Information Forms for Backup and Family

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Summary

I created some forms to record important information, outside of any electronic devices, as a backup source for myself and also for use by family in case I am incapacitated in any way. The motivation is that the electronic forms contain generic information about the companies I deal with and can be printed out as information changes. All important information, such as account numbers and passwords, are left blank to be filled in by hand. I have a one-inch looseleaf binder that holds all of the forms, which I keep in a fire safe.

Background

If you have entered into middle age, you may have already made a will and living will. In addition to having your stuff go where you want, it also saves those you leave behind a lot of hassle and stress. Another thing you can do to save your family time and stress is to provide them a list of your electronic usernames and passwords so that they can easily close your accounts?

The truth is, even if you are young, it can save a lot of time resetting passwords or cancelling a credit card if you have this information stored in a safe place. In making these forms, I found it was not always easy to find a customer support phone number from a website, but there was always one on a credit card itself.

In the case you often have people you don’t know in and out of your living place, and you don’t feel you have a secure location you can call your own, this method is definitely not for you. On the other hand, if you are able to securely store any kind of notebook, I encourage you to make a list of your account numbers and passwords for the benefit or yourself and your loved ones. This has really made my life easier. I include samples of my documents below. Most of them look something like this:

imp info form citi

Note on Formats

I understand many people would think forms are overkill. Just get a small spiral notebook that fits in your safe and get started writing it by hand. If you want to use any of the forms below, however, the most commonly used format will be “PDF”. Your computer most likely has software on it to read them, but you probably won’t be able to edit them. The other format is and Open Document format called Open Document Text (ODT) and should be able to be edited to suit your needs with “office” software1.

Ally Bank – Savings:  PDF  |  ODT

AMEX – Hilton Honors:  PDF  |  ODT

Bank of America MC Cash Back:  PDF  |  ODT

Barclays VISA Wyndham Hotels:  PDF  |  ODT

Capital One VISA Quicksilver:  PDF  |  ODT

CAR – Insurance:  PDF  |  ODT

Charles Schwab Bank/Brokerage:  PDF  |  ODT

Chase MC – IHG:  PDF  |  ODT

Citi MC – Double Cash:  PDF  |  ODT

EMAILS – Summary List:  PDF  |  ODT

Governments and EFTPS:  PDF  |  ODT

Health Care Market + Insurance:  PDF  |  ODT

Paypal Payments:  PDF  |  ODT

Retirement Soc Sec Plus:  PDF  |  ODT

Sirius XM Radio:  PDF  |  ODT

Subscriptions:  PDF  |  ODT

Various Accounts – Non-vital accounts:  PDF  |  ODT

Verizon Wireless:  PDF  |  ODT

1 I say the ODT files should be able to be read by office software because they are in an open source format that anyone can write a program to read. My favorite office software is Libre Office, an open source program that is always free to download. (I don’t use MS Office so I can’t test that now).

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