Should You “Opt Out” of New Credit Offers?

Don’t you just love going to your mailbox and finding all those new pre-approved credit card offers waiting for you? Filled with your personal financial information and easily accessible to thieves, it’s no wonder identity theft is so widespread. And having to take all that time shredding those offers before throwing them in the recycle bin. (You ARE shredding them, aren’t you? Thieves know that stealing your mail is a Federal crime, but stealing your garbage isn’t even considered a crime at all in most places.)

You Can Protect Yourself From Identity Thieves

Did you know you can prevent those offers from coming using www.optoutprescreen.com? A very simple service to use. You simply pull up the site and enter your information and that’s all there is to it. By “opting out”, you prevent credit card and other companies from obtaining your information for marketing purposes from the credit bureaus. Within a matter of weeks, your flow of junk mail and pre-approved offers will be reduced to a trickle.

Does “Opting Out” Work?

Yes, it works. Credit card companies find you by buying lists from the credit bureaus. By “opting out”, you are removed from these lists – by law. You’ll still get some offers for awhile after you put your name on the “opt out” list, because many of the companies have already purchased your name. But they update their mailing lists constantly with new lists, so pretty soon, your name will cycle out of their system. You’ll also continue to get offers from companies you already do business with as your info for those offers isn’t coming from the credit bureaus, but is coming from their own internal records.

So, yes, it works remarkably well to reduce these offers. But the real question is, “Should you Opt Out?” It may seem like a no-brainer to assume that, well, of course you should opt out. Why would you want all these companies to have access to your personal information which they put into their offers and send through the mail to you – and easy access for thieves? Here’s an easy way to protect your identity, so why not?

Why Would You NOT Opt Out?

Many of you reading these articles are trying to learn how to improve your credit scores. So here’s some advice: If you have poor credit or limited credit – DO NOT OPT OUT! At least, not yet. You see, if you’ve had credit problems in the past, the credit card accounts that you currently have probably have very high interest rates. Once you’ve missed a payment deadline – even one time after many years of faithful payment history – your credit card company probably raised your interest rate on you. A 30 day late, and you’ve likely got a 30% interest rate on that card now.

As you focus on fixing your credit and you get your payment history back on track, you’ll once again be rewarded with a higher credit score. And as your score increases, you’ll qualify for better credit card offers. If you “Opt Out”, you will not get these offers coming to you, which would give you an opportunity to shift your high-interest rate balances to lower interest rate cards. Remember, the only offers you’ll get will be coming from credit card companies that you already do business with – the ones charging you 30% interest – if you opt out. You think they want to cut off the amount of interest they are charging you? No way.

So, if you have weaker credit and high rates on your current cards, don’t put yourself on the “opt out” lists because you WANT those credit card offers coming in, for a while at least. Once your credit score gets to where you want it – go ahead and Opt Out.

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• Credit Card Debt
• Free Credit Reports
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