Tired of coming home to find your mailbox brimming with “pre-approved” credit card offers? You’re not alone.
What if you could put a stop to all of those unsolicited offers? As it turns out, you can. There’s just one catch: you’ll be asked to provide your Social Security number.
As Consumer Reports found, lenders routinely mail those solicitations after buying lists of potential customers from credit reporting agencies, like Equifax or Experian.
But with some personal information and a few clicks of the mouse, you can opt out of those lists for five years. Or, if you don’t mind a little extra paperwork, you can opt out for good.
All you have to do is visit OptOutPrescreen.com, the official Consumer Credit Reporting website, and fill out the electronic opt-out form. Within a few minutes, you’ll be good to go.
While you may worry about exposing your personal details -- your name, address, Social Security number and date of birth -- it’s worth noting that credit firms likely already have this information.
(Note: Your Social Security number and date of birth are not necessarily required, but it’s recommended that you include those details to make sure that your opt-out request goes through.)
So, would you consider providing your SSN to cut down on those unwanted offers? Take our poll below and we’ll show your results on News4Jax starting at 5.