Just Opt-Out

According to the US Postal Service, US companies sent 100 billion pieces of direct (junk) mail in 2005 – that’s more than 300 pieces of bulk mail for every man, woman and child in America. One type of junk mail you may be receiving are credit card and insurance offers. If you’re like us, you might wonder how you continue to be “pre-approved” for cards you had no interest in receiving in the first place.

Well, we did a little digging: Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you. The problem with having your name included on such lists is certainly a mountain of waste, but also a ding to your credit score each time one of these creditors or insurers runs your social security number through their screening process.

There is an upside, however. The FCRA also provides you the right to “Opt-Out”, which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for Firm Offers. That’s right: 2 minutes on a optoutprescreen.com will remove your name from lists provided to insurers and creditors by Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion, helping you reduce the deluge of junk mail flooding your mailbox for at least five years.

When you consider that the annual production and disposal of direct mail consumes more energy than 3 million cars, it’s hard to justify not doing whatever you can to reduce that number, huh? This is one free offer that’s hard to refuse.

I actually had just been reading about this and then found the same information on the Green is Sexy blog. I signed Jamie & I up this morning.

So easy to just Opt-Out.