I get several “invitations” to sign up for a Discovery Card every week in the mail. Sometimes they are addressed to my kids, even. They also call me on the phone about these offers, even though I always tell them to “take me off your list.” I have started mailing back their postpaid envelopes with “I’m not Interested” written across my pre-printed address in the enclosed mail. I heard somewhere they only have to pay this postage if the envelopes are sent, so I figure this might eventually get their attention. How else can I stop them from calling me and sending me their ads?
Here’s a place to start.
I don’t know how effective it is, though.
I always had good luck with just calling them up and asking them to stop sending them. It usually takes a few tries (I’m guessing they have several mailing cycles already printed, or on the way to the printer that can’t be changed), but I went from getting 10-15 per month between Discover and various citi cards to none. Just open it up, look for a phone number…ANY phone number and call them. If they ask why, (not that you have to justify yourself), just tell them you don’t want a card right now, but when you do you’ll just go to their website. BTW I tried mailing them back (usually wrote RETURN TO SENDER followed by Moved-no fowarding address or something more colorful) but it never made a differnce.
They do have to pay a small amount of postage but you won’t be getting anyone’s attention. The drones who open the envelopes are there to process the replies from people who want a card. All of the various prank mailings or people like you just get thrown away. They don’t note from where they came.
What’s a “Discovery” card?
It’s a credit card like Visa or MasterCard. It’s actually a “Discover” card.
That may be true for credit card offers, but when I was being bombarded by offers from the dreaded “Hamilton Company” (stupid little collectibles that I purchased “one” of about a year ago) I stuffed the info back into the prepaid envelope with a note saying I only made a “one-time purchase” and to please stop the mailings.
They sent me a postcard saying they were sorry to lose my business and that they’d removed me from their list. SUCCESS!
Good luck trying to cancel a Discover card once you have one. I’ve tried for years to get them to cancel my account. They won’t do it. They would switch me to a no-fee card, and did. I just toss the new cards in a drawer each year and let them rot. Not worth the hassle.
The magic codewords are “Put my on your do-not-call list.” Companies are required to keep such a list by law, and there are penalties for calling you after you have asked to be put on this list.
Note that if you ask to be taken off the list, you could just be added back again later. But, the do-not-call list avoids that problem.
Good luck!