How to Stop Your Junk Mail

If your home is anything like mine, you recieve more junk mail that you would like to and feel that it is an uphill battle to stop it from coming each day. I used to think this and have been doing some research online and have found some good ways to drastically reduce the amount of junk I recieve.

Your name, address, phone number, email address, and even your consumer habits are a huge commodity that is traded freely on the open market. This is a common practice with just about any agency that you deal with, and here are a couple things I’ve come up with to stop it:

• The biggest offender of selling off your information is probably your credit card company. This can be as simple as calling them and informing them that you do not wish to have your information passed along to anyone. This will usually flag your account in their system appropriately.
• Coming in at a close second, if you participate in them, are those contests that you see at sporting events, malls, and other events. I filled one out once about 2 years ago and am still getting mail from this, not to mention the 2-3 phone calls a day for a matter of about 2 months at the beginning. Simply don’t fill them out if you aren’t willing to be harassed for the next year or so.
• Warranty cards are usually not required for you to maintain the warranty on your product. These are generally used to get information about your habits and income for the purpose of direct marketing. Avoid sending them in.
• One cool way to track what agencies are selling your information to whom is to use a different false middle name or initial with each organization that you do send information into. Note it down on a list and this can be compared when you receive junk mail from unknown companies in the future. This can be very revealing as to who sold your information to this new company.

Now for some more detailed and specific types of junk mail I’ve compiled a list of individual types and sources of your junk mail.

Sexually Oriented Advertising: The post office has a means for helping you control explicit material from being sent to your house. Fill out a USPS form 1500 to stop this type of mail.

Credit Offers: This one is easy. These offers are received from agencies that get their info from the credit reporting agencies. You can opt out of all 4 of the agencies by calling 1-888-567-8688 (888-5OPT-OUT). This is a 24 hour line and will efficiently stop you from receiving unwanted offers.

AOL Demo Disks: Call 1-800-605-4297 to have your name removed from the list. Tell them that your name is “Current Resident”.

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