How to Stop Credit Card Offers

Credit card issuers want you to apply for a credit card, even when it’s the last thing that’s on your mind. Credit card offers can swamp your mailbox, adding extra mail for you to sort through. Fortunately, you don’t have to keep receiving these credit card offers, especially if you’re not interested in receiving them. There’s a process you can use to stop credit card offers from coming in the mail.

Preapproved Isn’t Always Approved

If you’ve ever responded to a “pre-approved” credit card offer, you may have been turned down. Why does this happen? When credit card issuers send these notices, they send them to everyone who meets a certain set of criteria. For example, they may mail pre-approved offers to everyone who has a credit score between 680 and 720. However, when they run a full application on you, there may be something on your credit report that makes them reject your credit card application. So, preapproved really just means prescreened. There’s no guarantee that you’ll actually be approved for a credit card that you’ve been preapproved for.

How to Opt-Out of Prescreened Offers

Prescreened offers are mailed to you because the credit bureaus have included your name on a list. You can remove your name from this list by visiting www.OptOutPrescreen.com. This is the only website you can use to stop preapproved credit card offers generated by credit bureau lists. Fortunately, this is the only website you have to visit to remove your name from the lists of all three credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Once you’re at the website, you can choose to opt-out for five years. To opt-out, you’ll have to enter your name, social security number, address, and date of birth. If you’re uncomfortable filling out this information over the internet, there’s also an option to opt-out by mail. You can also choose to opt-out by mail if you want to permanently opt-out of prescreened offers.

After you complete the form, it will take a few days for preapproved offers to stop coming, but they will stop. However, this opt-out only lasts for a few years. After five years, you’ll start getting preapproved offers again and you’ll just need to opt-out again, to stop the offers.

How to Start Credit Card Offers Again

Let’s say you’ve already opted-out of credit card offers, but you’re thinking about getting a new credit card and you want to see what good deals are out there. You can opt-in to receiving prescreened offers by visiting the same website – OptOutPrescreen.com.

Not All Offers Will End

Even after you’ve completed the opt-out process, you may continue to get credit card offers. These offers can come from credit card companies that you already have an account with. Or, the offers come from some type of list that’s not generated by the credit bureaus. Opting-out via the Opt-Out Prescreen website only removes your name from the lists that are furnished by the three credit bureaus.