“You Have Been Pre Approved for a MasterCard / Visa / American Express / Discover!”

There’s nothing I hate seeing in my mailbox more, the same is probably true for you as well….if not yet, it will be after you read this…

Steve from SaveAndMake.com and I’ve Tried That gets 3 - 4 offers a week and asked me how to stop these offers from plaguing him.

Credit Card Offers

Here’s something you probably didn’t know, those Pre-Approved credit card offers are considered “soft pulls” to your credit report probably accounting for 2/10 of a point each “soft pull”. These can drag your score down drastically at the tune of 3 - 4 a week.

You can go to the Opt-Out Prescreen website to get rid of them, additionally you can opt out for five years, or a lifetime.

Here are the “Frequently Asked Questions”. I always look at these, they’re good for general things you should know about the website itself and the process.

Alternatively, you can opt-IN to the “firm” offers, so that instead of just “Pre-Approved Offers” which are conditional and you still have to have your credit run (actual inquiry to your credit) for final approval, when you receive an offer in the mail, they’ve already pulled your credit report and decided how much to approve you for, etc. These are the kind you really don’t want to have coming to your house, those are actual cards they’re sending and if someone steals it from your mailbox or post office box, you could have your identity stolen.

Getting the Mail

This is not something I would recommend unless you are signed up for credit monitoring and monitor your credit closely so that you could catch any theft of your credit immediately.

This website notifies Experian, Equifax, Innovis (new) and TransUnion, so they’ll all know that you don’t want junk mail and those stupid paper credit cards anymore, or that you want credit cards in your mailbox, lol.