Credit Cards Out Of Junk Mail

Credit card companies being in constant rivalry for the customers’ loyalty are used to attacking their possible cardholders with tons of advertisement letters and pre-approvals. If you have more than average credit, you are sure to receive heaps of junk letters in your mail. Your paper shredder is already fed up with these letters? There is a way to stop this. It is common knowledge that you personal information collected by credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion) can be sold to banks on request. Analyzing these numerous credit profiles, credit issuing companies figure out their potential customers and send preapproved credit card offers and letters to them. Mind it this does not breach the Fair Credit Reporting Act. However, anyone can put an end to this: the US legislation implies several ways for a consumer to opt out pre-approvals in the mail.
The most popular method is asking credit bureaus to remove your name from the pre-approval lists. You can do it in writing, by mail or e-mail, providing your full name, ZIP code, social security, phone number and mailing address. This is called opting out. A faster and safer way to contact the bureaus for stopping preapprovals is calling them or making the request at the special web-site – www. Optoutprescreen.com.
In fact, opting out is a special service credit bureaus offer to consumers, so you can be charged a fee. After you submit your opting out application, your data will be removed from prescreening list and you will forget about junk mail from banks for up to 5 years (depending on the deal). Your credit file is just hidden from creditors who search for new opportunities to advertize.
However, there are people who want to receive mail from banks due to a number of reasons. If you do, inform the credit bureaus so that they would remove your name from the opt-out list.
Many consumers are afraid of contacting credit reporting agencies, because personal information is required to make a request. The truth is that bureaus already have this information of yours, so you share it for the sake of verification only.
Statistics show that you are not 100% protected from unsolicited credit card offers even if you are in the opt-out list. Credit card companies can use old consumer lists.
Another important issue to mention is the “green” aspect of opting out prescreened credit offers. If you refuse to receive letters from credit companies, you will make a contribution to the environment protection: fewer trees will be used for paper production. Interestingly, green credit card issuers are in the habit of sending necessary documents (including credit card offers) by e-mail.
In spite of all inconveniences, pre-approval letters can really be informative and help you find a great credit card deal for your needs and credit score. Many offers include promotional interest rates and rewards, so you can get a good deal! If such things are of no interest to you or you know what you want from credit industry, do not hesitate and opt out the preapproval letters. Do not overfeed your paper-shredder!

About the Author:
Xxx has been well-known for professional credit assistance at Credit-Land.com and for being an author of a number of articles devoted to solving credit problems and choosing the most beneficial credit cards.