Less Credit Card Junk Mail – Woohoo!

I don’t know how many times I’ve called my credit card companies and asked them to quit sending me junk mail about new cards and offers. It’s a waste of paper and it’s a waste of electricity to shred them all. I also get tons of new credit card offers in the mail, thanks to our new business.

This article from MSN made me smile:

Expect Less Junk Mail as Marketers Cut Back

Not only are credit card companies scaling back, so are some other companies that send out catalogs. That makes me happy because so many catalogs received just go in the trash upon arrival without even looking through them. We’re in debt – we don’t need to look at them! Especially those catalogs with neat doohickeys that look so cool but would probably only be used a few times and then collect dust.

Although I love getting mail every day, we were getting way too much junk in our mail. It was becoming too wasteful and getting off their lists was sometimes impossible.

Posted by Tricia on November 8, 2008 at 10:41 PM in Credit Cards | 11 Comments »
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Jamie responded:
Posted: November 8th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Have you tried http://www.optoutprescreen.com. This stops it at the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies. We tried to opt out about 6 months ago and the mail seems to contain fewer offers. It takes a few months to see an improvement.

http://www.WeLearnAsWeGo.com
Mrs. Accountability responded:
Posted: November 9th, 2008 at 2:40 am
My boss gets all those catalogs and looks at every single one. She has me ordering from them for her at least twice a month. I have caved twice and ordered some of the “cool doohickeys”… but both times the quality was beyond junk. At least when I’m shopping Walmart I can see what I’m getting right away, without having to send them back. So if you ever have any temptation, just remind yourself the products are dollar store quality junk. At least IMHO. OH, and on the credit card offers – they can sometimes come in handy when you need to transfer a balance. I kept getting one every single week that was 0% interest for up to 15 months, no yearly fee AND ZERO balance transfer fee. I took advantage of it and moved a card over that was going from 1% up to 9.5%. I do wish my credit card company would stop wasting resources to send me those credit card checks that I will never use.
Da Big D responded:
Posted: November 9th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I saw a bit on TV about taking the info, cutting it up and sending it in the pre paid envee lop. If enough people do it, it will cost them too much to even send it out. Of course something like 30% of all people need to do it, that get it. But it makes me feel good knowing that I am sticking it back to them, since they have to open up the envolop and through it out.
HT responded:
Posted: November 9th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I have been working on eliminating unwanted mail. In addition to the optoutprescreen website above, I used http://www.catalogchoice.org to eliminate unwanted catalogs. I also used Charity Navigator to find out if the charities that I was donating to had ‘opt-out’ policies. I now only donate to places that do not share my name with anyone else.
The Credit Toolbox responded:
Posted: November 9th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I don’t bother receiving those offers. they all end-up in my fireplace or my kids use them on the drawing table

I wonder if it really works. I mean, what is the return on such advertising promotion? Do you sign one client out of a thousand? out of 10,000?

I find it’s too bad to destroy forest in order to pollute people’s mind with credit card offers!
Larry responded:
Posted: November 10th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
WaMu was the worst! I am still getting junk mail form them to this date!

Now if only I could stop receiving those ‘Money Mailers’

Larry
http://www.theluckymoneycat.com/
mv responded:
Posted: November 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
@ Da Big D – cutting up the offer & sending it back does nothing to stop the company from sending you offers again.

This is what I did a few years ago to successfully eliminate junk mail:

1. I came across http://www.junkbusters.com/optout.html, where you can print letters to all Credit Bureau’s, all Direct Mail marketing folks (Lexis/Nexis, Direct Marketing Association, etc), and a others that didn’t fall into these 2 categories – all you do is print the letter, fill in some personal information, fold the piece of paper & put a stamp on it. No envelop needed – the letter prints so that when you fold it, the address displays on one side & the letter contents on the other.

2. Every time I received unwanted offers in the mail, I would take my trusty black Sharpie & write across the envelop “Return to Sender – Do NOT send mail to this address”, by law (at least here in California), this is you ‘opting out’ of their offers. If they continued to send you mail, you could technically sue in small claims court for not abiding by your request to be removed from their offer. I only had problems with one company, where I had to request about 4 times.

3. Let ALL your credit card companies/insurance company/etc know that you do not want to be sent offers, nor have them share your information with their partners for other offers.

4. When moving, if at all possible, avoid filling out the ‘change of address’ form with the post office – this puts your name back on all sorts of lists (which you’ve worked so hard to be removed from). Instead, call all the banks, credit card companies, magazines you wish to keep, etc, and give them your address & tell them you do not wish to receive unsolicited offers and requesting they do not share your information with anyone, including their partners.

The above steps took me about 1 – 1.5 yrs to stop receiving junk mail. With #4, I was lucky that with one particular move, I had folks at the previous address that I could get mail from.

After one particular move, I did have to use the post offices’ ‘change of address form’, boy, what a mistake, I started to receive junk mail again, but not like before. Again, got out my trusty black Sharpie, wrote ‘Return to Sender – Do NOT send mail to this address’ on the envelope & no more junk mail.

The ONLY credit card company I had problems with was Capitol One earlier this year. I kept on getting their ‘cash-advance-blank-check’ in the mail. I would call & tell them I’m on their do-not-send-offers to list (even verified it the first time), but to no avail. Each and every month for 5 months, I kept on getting this darned ‘cash-advance-blank-check’ in the mail. Then I called to cancel my account. If they couldn’t honor my wishes, I didn’t want their business. The lady I spoke with asked why, I told her the long story, she checked a few different areas within their system, allegedly removed my address from some additional areas & said I wouldn’t receive any more mail. One month later I get another ‘cash-advance-blank-check’. I was pissed. I called them immediately & canceled my account. I asked for a letter confirming the account was canceled. This was 5 months ago – to this day I’ve not received the letter confirming my account was canceled…nor any more ‘cash-advance-blank-checks’ in the mail.

It takes time, but keep your black Sharpie handy. Every time you get unsolicited mail, write ‘Return to Sender – Do NOT send mail to this address’ on the envelop & send it right back. Soon enough, the offers will stop.
Aya @ Thrive responded:
Posted: November 10th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
How about bundling up all the junk mail from one institution from a few months and send it back to them in a big envelope?
Money Funk responded:
Posted: November 11th, 2008 at 11:07 am
I Opted-Out long ago to get rid of junk mail and credit card offers. One to save the environment, on my behalf, and two because I hate it!

All you have to do it call: Dial 1-888-5 OPT OUT (or 1-888-567-8688) 24 hours a day.
Angie responded:
Posted: November 11th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Another great place to go to to eliminate junk mail is http://www.greendimes.org. Some days I don’t get anything. I haven’t gotten a credit card offer in almost a year! Just started reading, hope to learn a lot!
dyannem responded:
Posted: November 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Every year at Christmas we get a ridiculously large, glossy catalogue from a very upscale mall that isn’t even near my house. It has doodads and clothes from Neiman Marcus, Saks and tons of other stores I’ve never even set foot in. This year along with the usual $15,000 purses and $1300 shoes there is a notebook and pen set for $1200. I just want to know – do people really buy this stuff? It’s like a comic book.