Do you receive credit cards offers in the mail? Well, take that as a good sign about your credit, but a bad sign about your vulnerability. These offers not only fill up the recycling bin, they leave you exposed to mail crime and identity theft.
Many of us can easily say we receive at least a handful of pre-approved credit offers in the mail each week. What do you do with these? If you don’t plan to use any of them, they probably end up in the trash. Hopefully you also put them through the shredder first.
If these offers get into the wrong hands, either from crooks going through garbage bins or stealing mail, they can be used to open live accounts in your name. Credit accounts that you would be completely unaware of.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act hopes to help. They have an option for consumers to literally opt out of receiving any unsolicited offers of credit at all. There are two methods to do this, and both are relatively simple.
The first method is to fill out a form online at www.optoutprescreen.com or call 888-5-OPTOUT. This process will keep you on the “opt out list” for five years.
If you are interested in a more permanent solution, you can fill out the same form. But, instead of submitting it online, you would print it, sign it and mail it in. This provides them with a firm confirmation of your decision.
Although it can take a few weeks before this service kicks in, the program will ensure that no one can access your credit information from any reporting agency without your specific authorization. This can be an outstanding way to limit unnecessary checks to your credit, as well as limit the amount of unsolicited offers you receive.
There really is no drawback to this service, as you can still authorize companies to review your credit when you apply for loans or credit cards. The only reason why many don’t actually use the “opt out” program is because most people either know nothing about it or don’t know how it get on the list.
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