Pre Approved Credit Card Offers

June 20, 2007

“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.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Credit, Financial, How-To, Informative, Saving Money, Top Tips & Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Responses to “Pre Approved Credit Card Offers”

  1. Jake said:

    Sep 03, 07 at 9:42 pm

    I never knew I could get out of these! Thanks!

  2. CHESSNOID said:

    Sep 04, 07 at 7:54 am

    I never new these were considered soft pulls against my credit. That is not cool.

  3. Sabrina said:

    Sep 04, 07 at 8:10 am

    It’s easy to stop them, once you know about them In the infamous words of G.I. Joe – knowing is half the battle!

    :D

  4. Get Your Credit Score said:

    Sep 19, 07 at 12:20 pm

    [...] this article, Pre Approved Credit Card Offers to learn how to handle those and take control over your junk mail. Those companies not only send [...]

  5. Pre Approved Credit Cards offers Suck said:

    Sep 20, 07 at 9:17 pm

    Very good article. Millions of people receive this crap every day. We despise it and bash it at Creditor Link.

    Keep up the great posts!

  6. Lock Your Credit Report | Sabrina's Money Matters said:

    Jan 21, 08 at 8:25 am

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  7. Your Personal Info is NOT Secure | Sabrina's Money Matters said:

    Jan 23, 08 at 2:06 pm

    [...] How To: Put a Fraud Alert on Your Credit FileLock Your Credit Report | Sabrina’s Money Matters on Pre Approved Credit Card Offersdcr on Friday [...]