Credit Card Offers! Can they be stopped?
If you are like me, when I bring in the mail everyday, invariably there are a few credit card offers. I used to just toss them out. Now, I’ve made sure that I don’t get them anymore, and I’ll show you how too. To someone trying to steal your identity it’s like gold. Simply fill it out, change the address and they are on their way to a new credit card, IN YOUR NAME! Don’t let it happen to you, ever again.
Think Green at the very least!
Even if you think you won’t be the candidate for Identity Theft, think of the incredible waste of paper being generated every day by these unused offers for credit. It must amount to tons of paper being thrown away everyday. We owe it to globe to stop this madness, even just one person at a time.
So how do they find me?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives the credit bureaus permission to sell your credit history information to credit lending companies. By default they can sell your information if they so choose. An amendment to this act in 1990 allows for consumers to choose NOT to receive these offers. I feel it should be the other way around….
Stop The Temptation
Probably the reason I currently have 4 credit cards is due to temptation. Offers rolling in with the ability to transfer balances from other cards, lower interest rates, etc. By not reading the fine print, I’ve been burned on this a few times. If
you feel you are susceptible to this, then another great reason to stop offers come in is to stop the temptation of acting upon them.
OK! ENOUGH! How do I do it?
First there is a service run by the four main credit bureaus that will get you off their lists. This step alone should stop all “Pre-Screened” offers from rolling into your mailbox.
This service can be contacted via two different methods:
Website: http://www.optoutprescreen.com
Phone: 1-888-5-OPTOUT
Either method should exact the required results.
Is that all there is to it?
Theoretically that should work with all your prescreened offers. But you will still most likely receive offers and “convenience” checks from any banks or credit cards you currently are associated with. On the back of each of your credit cards will be a customer service number. Call each number and ask to be removed from any additional card offers, convenience checks, phone calls, etc. I found that when I did this, the customer service reps were very helpful in explaining all the services and removing from each one.
Call your bank(s) customer service and ask to be removed from all credit card offers, convenience checks, etc. also. My banks, too, were very helpful in this matter.
What if I still receive offers?
Very likely you are on another list. Each offer that comes will most likely have some fine print that will allow you to call and be removed from that list.
Conclusion
This all seems very tedious and it is. But you will be surprised how that big handful of mail everyday, becomes a small handful. You will be helping the environment, saving yourself from temptation, and reducing your chances of being a victim of identity theft. It’s worth the effort.
Good Luck and start dialing!
2 responses so far ↓
1 Kelset // Jul 20, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I was able to do this with my membership with MyJunkTree, I signed up to Stop Junk Mail and I was able to stop the credit card offers as well. It was pretty easy, I stopped the ones from my bank and the ones I received out of the blue. It is a great service, I stopped my junk mail, weekly coupons and all the catalogs I no longer wanted. They were running a promo when I signed up and I saved $5 off the $20 membership, try Promo code “Protect”
2 Tim // Aug 26, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I happen to be one of the owners of MyJunkTree and as a new company I search the web to see if we are getting any visibility out there and it seems the word is getting out. Thanks for the support.
We launched the company because we were tired of all the junk mail we were receiving and we personally did not want to bounce all over the web to contact all the different companies to stop it all. First and foremost we wanted to let people choose what they wanted to let come to their home knowing that some people really do like some of the coupons and catalogs. So our clients choose what they want stopped.
We also had to provide a service that is different than the other services out there, so here is what we offer:
1. We have a database of over 1300 catalogs that you can choose to stop.
2. We have over a 2000 charities/Non-Profits that you can stop solicitations from.
3. Stop the delivery of the national phone directories.
4. Stop the delivery of the weekly coupons.
5. Stop the general credit card offers as well as the ones from your own major bank.
6. Stop the miscellaneous junk mail from the data brokers.
7. You can register on the National Do Not Call Registry from the website.
8. You can order your no strings attached free annual credit report right from the website.
9. We plant trees with every new membership.
And, yes we are a paid service and yes you can do everything that we do for free, if you want to do all the research and spend the time contacting the companies yourself it can easily be done. We have just done all of the legwork for our clients and feel there is value in the service we provide.
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