I have done the whole http://www.optoutprescreen.com (link goes to official website) thing that supposedly puts a stop to all “pre-approved” credit card offers. But I still get tons of plain (not “pre-approved”) credit card offers in the mail. I travel a great deal and my mailbox out at the street is often not emptied for several days at a time, putting me at risk for identify theft/fraud by thieves stealing the applications and submitting them with my name. Plus, just mail just annoys me and makes me stabby.
Is there any way to stop ALL CC offers from coming, not just the “pre-approved” ones?
A few years ago I began writing on the applications a bunch of obscenities like don’t F’in send me any more of this F’in crap etc. and mailing all their stuff back in their postage paid envelope. I have not gotten a credit card solicitation for at least a year and a half, so I guess that worked.
Cut some pieces of steel that will fit in the postage paid envelopes. Make sure you tape them in place. This raises the weight, and hence the price to mail them, considerably.
According to the post office employee who actually delivers my mail, first class mail earns three times as much revenue as third class mail. Electronic commerce has carved a huge dent in first class revenue. The post office is left with increasing third class “junk mail” attempting to make up the loss.
Unlikely to work.
Most such envelopes are opened by machine, scanned & data-entered by low-level contract employees, usually from a separate service company. Nowadays, often people in a foreign country, who may not even speak English. They are paid only on the volume of work they produce, so they waste absolutely no time on obscenity-filled applications like yours, they just get trashed immediately.
Seconding this. You’ll have to do this with all three of the major credit reporting companies and it can be a bit of a pain if you need to let someone access your credit score for a legitimate purpose but it’s the safest, best way to go.
On another note, for an extra layer of security, you might want to get a locking, secure mailbox like this. If you’re gone for days at a time with mail stacking up then it couldn’t hurt.
The opt-out screening process that you have signed up with is great for pre-approved since it registers you with the Credit Bureaus. However, to stop all offers go to the DMA (Direct Mail Association) website and get on their “do not mail” list.
I notice that the first link upthread says you can’t opt-out for others in your household. I’d like to be able to do that; I have a credit card addict in the house and I’d feel a lot more secure if I could do that.
Well, whatever I did worked-just wish I knew what it was. I’ve not piled on any huge debts lately, when I did my annual credit check last month everything seemed kosher, yet I haven’t gotten any snail mail CC offers in several weeks now. Nor has my mom, FWIW.
I always hear people complaining about how they worry that someone might steal their identity based on CC offers in the mail. How is that? Are they pre-filled with information not available to the public? I mean, I could look up some random person’s address and attempt to get a credit card with that too. As for a SSN, that’s not on the CC offer anyways.
As for not getting them, what worked for me was to call the number on the offer (every single time I got an offer) and nicely ask them to stop sending them. It took about 6 months and probably 4 or 5 calls to Discover and probably 10 to Capital One and one to a handful of others but eventually they all stopped. In theory it probably only really took one call to each company but they told me that the mailings are usually set to go for the next few months so even though you are ‘removed’ from the database you may still get some mail. Either way, I called each time. FTR, I was always very nice, never any attitude. It’s just not something I get worked up over. Annoyed enough to call, yes, but not enough to yell and the random person who answers the phone.
I don’t think I’ve had a CC offer in the mail in, well, since I’ve been in my current house, so at least 8 years or so, but I know it stopped while I was still in my last apartment.
There’s some small risk, as the offers are partially pre-approved. So the thief fills out the form, then either changes the addrtess so it comes to him (this trick doesn’t work so well anymore0 or waits to steal it from the mailbox.
Not really ID theft, but indeed a small risk of fraud. It used to be the risk was much higher, as the fraudster could simply change the address to his mail drop, then use the CC for a while, more or less risk free. But now the CC companies double check if the address is changed. Well, at least the respectable ones do.
