Once I moved into a home, the amount of credit card offers and insurance offers were startling. Every day, I would receive at least one and sometimes more of the following applications in the mail; credit card, home equity line of credit, car insurance, home insurance, mortgage insurance, and life insurance.
Luckily, a friend had told me a site OptOutPrescreen.com, where I can stop this junk mail from filling up my mailbox. At first it sounded a little fishy to me, but I did a little research and found out that the site is legit. It was created as a result of Fair Credit Reporting Act and a link to the site can be found on the Federal Trade Commission’s website.
There are many advantages to stopping junk mail:
- No chance of someone stealing your credit card applications through the mail.
- Out of sight, out of mind. You willn’t be tempted to sign up for any credit card offers that you don’t need.
- Save paper.
- The fewer the amount of companies with your social security number the better.
Disadvantages to Using OptOutPrescreen
Despite what the website says, there are no disadvantages to opting out. If you were looking for credit card offers, you can easily go online and search.
How does it Work?
You can choose to either opt out electronically or permanently by mail. If you choose electronically, you will be opted out for only 5 years. If you choose to opt out by mail, you will never receive a credit card offer again.
How long does it Take?
I wasn’t tracking the days to the exact date, but I would estimate that around four weeks after opting out, I was no longer receiving any prescreened offers through the mail. In other words, I’m receiving as much junk mail as I am fan mail. (:
Now, all that is left to do is to find out how my college got my new address.
One More Thing | How to Really Stop Junk Mail
If you’re also tired of receiving catalogs, there is a free service Catalog Choice that can help you reduce your junk mail even more. It’s pretty simple; you just enter in your address and the catalog number of the catalog you want to eliminate.
If you enjoyed this article, the easiest way you can help me out is to take a second and retweet or share this post on Facebook. Thank you for your help!
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Excellent post. I will share it with all of the Catalog Choice Facebook fans as an example of how to spread the word. You can access Optoutprescreen from your Catalog Choice account so that you can maintain a record of when you made this request.
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