Who doesn’t like getting mail?
It’s always a mystery – who sent you something? What did you buy online a few days ago but can’t remember?
There’s also a lot of mail that isn’t so fun. Junk mail and bills.
Stop Credit Card Junk Mail
If you’re like most people, the majority of your junk mail is made up of credit card offers.
“0% for life!”
“$200 in Cash Back Rewards!”
“Fly anywhere you want for free!”
Ah, if it weren’t for the many credit card gimmicks in our mailboxes we’d all be quite boring. But sometimes credit card mail isn’t all that appreciated. Luckily, we can turn it off.
How to Say “No” to Credit Card Snail Mail
Most mail is pre-screened to each individual. This means that the credit card offer you receive is dependent on your credit score. Credit card companies can see your credit score “range” as a general area in order to see which offer they should send to your mailbox. Think of it as being identified by “bad,” “good,” and “great” credit score ranges.
Luckily, the same Fair Credit Reporting Act that allows this practice also allows you to opt-out of it. (This is the same law that gives consumers a free annual credit report from the major bureaus.)
Opting out is a piece of cake. Simply go to optoutscreen.com to opt-out of pre-screened financial offers for as long as five years. Alternatively, you can call the phone line at 1–888–567–8688 to request that your name be removed from the list.
Why Remove Yourself
In truth, consumers with good credit should enjoy the fact that lenders recognize their good credit history. Borrowers who have good scores will receive some of the best offers for some of the best credit cards – gimmick or no gimmick, who doesn’t like fat checks just for signing up to a new card?
But removing yourself does have a few choice benefits:
- Protecting Your Identity – The less offers you have falling into your mailbox, the less likely you are to be a victim of identity theft. You’re also far less likely to be a victim of simple fraud, whereby another person applies for credit cards in your name and spends them into oblivion.
- Less waste – Those with a “sustainable” or “green” streak inside of them might prefer not to receive hundreds of credit card offers each year. The simple fact is that only a small percentage of credit card offers are ever accepted. Most are torn up, or thrown away. Either way, credit card marketers consume plenty of energy having the Postal Service ship many millions of letters around the US each year.
- Killing Temptation – If you’re on a mission to remove debt from your life, you should go full-circle and remove it from your inbox as well. Credit card offers are often written to target people already facing credit card debt. Why else would so many card companies offer low-rate balance transfer offers or low APRs that wouldn’t matter as long as a credit card is paid off in full? Companies know the best customer is the one using a competitor’s service, so those who use credit cards tend to get the most credit card offers.
There’s many reasons to put an end to mailboxes cluttered up with credit card offers. There’s only one way to make sure it happens, however.
Website url: optoutscreen.com
Phone number: 1–888–567–8688
Photo by: Steve Snodgrass
