No more preapproved credit cards!

[JenTay]

Many of you here know how much I hate junk mail. Especially from banks and credit card companies. I got this website from the "Dummies Guide against Identity Theft" book series.

It allows you to be permanently deleted from their stupid preapproved lists.
Let me know what you guys think.

www.optoutprescreen.com

[Southern]

Any site which requests your SS # stay away!!!!!

[PC Dave]

http://www.fraudguides.com/consumer_optoutprescreen.asp

http://www.beggingtodiffer.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=pp;action=print;num=1107202095

[Brian Carlton]

Originally Posted by rjnonnie

Any site which requests your SS # stay away!!!!!

I agree completely. Never provide your social security number online to anyone. In fact, don't provide it on any written applications as well, unless you cannot possibly avoid it.

With a s/s number and a DOB, you are a potential dead man when it comes to identity theft.

[PC Dave]

It's a legitimate site according to TransUnion, which is one of the credit reporting agencies that own it:

http://www.transunion.com/Contact.jsp

Every credit request you make requires your SSN; it's how Equifax, TransUnion, etc. track you. How could they confirm your request without your SSN?

[Southern]

Originally Posted by PC Dave

http://www.fraudguides.com/consumer_optoutprescreen.asp

http://www.beggingtodiffer.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=pp;action=print;num=1107202095

They didn't need my SS # to put me on the Do Not Call List. Legit or not I will not give my SS # over a website.

[Early Bird]

I'm all for stopping those pesty applications that I get daily. BUT, I just wouldn't give my S.S. number over the internet. So I guess I'll just keep getting those miserable applications.

[mespe]

Remove all your personal information, stuff all the papers back into it, and send it back to them. Let them pay the postage and keep the USPS in the black.

[Southern]

Originally Posted by mespe

Remove all your personal information, stuff all the papers back into it, and send it back to them. Let them pay the postage and keep the USPS in the black.

I prefer to stuff papers from other junk mail into the prepaid envelope. That way they are forced to look at someone elses junk mail. The prepaid envelopes also are good for emptying hole punches and mailing them back.

[speace]

I've often thought of doing that! Make them pay to get their junk back...
It would only work if a lot of people started doing that!

There is an 800 number to call as well. Again, I think they will need your ss number, but this number is legit and so is the web site referenced. (No, I don't want to give my number to a web site either...)

Below is a quote from www.clarkhhoward.com who is a consumer advocate for a local radio station.

Eliminate credit card pre-approvals - January 27, 2005
It’s important that you shut down credit card pre-approvals in general to prevent identity theft, but it’s even more important if you’re planning to move. That’s because the companies continue to send pre-approvals to your address even if you move. Identity thieves can simply grab those forms out of your old mailbox and fill them out, pretending to be you. They then rack up all kinds of charges on “your account.” So, be sure you OPT OUT of those pre-approvals now! When you do, you can either opt out permanently or for five years. You can either call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT or go to optoutprescreen.com. It won’t eliminate every pre-approval. Frequent flier cards and hotel points cards are not blocked, for example. But it will take care of most of the offers you would have received.

There are, or should be, instructions for opting out in every offer for a "pre-approved credit card" you get in the mail. Its somewhere in all that superfine print bible page mass of crap they stuff in the envelope.

[Gilly]

I've also heard you can tape the return envelope to a box of up to 70lbs (of whatever; scrap metal, lawn weeds, your mother-in-law) and the post office will charge them for whatever the weight was.

Gilly

[lietuviai]

Originally Posted by Gilly

I've also heard you can tape the return envelope to a box of up to 70lbs (of whatever; scrap metal, lawn weeds, your mother-in-law) and the post office will charge them for whatever the weight was.

Gilly

I've thought about doing just that but it won't fit in the out box of my mail box so I just mail back all their offers with a big "No Thanks" written on them.

BTW, on that optout website, SS# info is not required.

[sfloriII]

I read the fine print on one of the 0% balance transfer/ "credit card checks" that I received recently.

It said that there was a 2% "administrative charge" for each transfer or check used. So that effectively makes it a 2% loan, not 0%. Pretty sneaky, and dishonest.