Cut ‘em off at the pass

October

I found my 13,000th letter from Capitol One in my mailbox yesterday, reminding me that I could have one of their credit cards by sending in an application. Thanks. I have all the credit cards I need (one) and have been routinely throwing their requests for new business in the trash along with all the other solicitations we get at our house. I’m in charge of little, but junk mail is ALL MINE.

I was frustrated enough to take do something about it immediately and tore open the letter to locate a customer service number to tell them to stop sending me something I wasn’t going to use. After all, why have them waste their money, right?

What I found was even better than I expected and is worth passing on: Call 1-888-OPT-OUT (678-688) and you can “stop receiving pre-screened offers of credit” from a bunch of credit card and insurance companies.

It’s a little weird because, of course, you never talk to a human and they try to get you to say your Social Security number over the phone. (I just said no over and over until they completed my request without it.) It is also a bit scary because if you call from your home phone, they already know who you are and what your address is. Convenient, of course, but still a little frightening in a “1984” way.

By the time you’re done, you can do it for yourself and your spouse (and children, though I didn’t try that) and you won’t be solicited for five years. Might as well get to the root of the problem and stop the mailings before they get to the post office, eh? Good luck. It seems like a good idea. I hope I don’t have to eat my words.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 3:43 pm by Greg Clary.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print | Email

It is a condition of your use of the comment features associated with the blogs that you do not: Use the site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. You alone are responsible for the material you post or send. Refer to the Terms of Service.