Web Site Can Stop Credit Mailers
By PHIL MULKINS
Dear Action Line: Can you please tell me a safe way to stop all the pre-approved credit card applications that come in the mail? I found an Internet site professing to stop such applications but have no idea if it is legitimate. — G.H., Tulsa.
The official way to have your name and address removed from the databases sending such offers is through the OptOutPrescreen Web site tulsaworld.com/OptOutPrescreen or call (888) 567-8688. Until the offers stop arriving, you should continue shredding anything featuring your name or other personal data.
The site is mandated by an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The act permits credit reporting bureaus to include your name on lists they sell to credit card companies and insurers who use them to make “firm offers” of credit or insurance (offers not resulting from contact by you). The act gives you the right to “opt out” of receiving such offers. Doing so prevents their providing your credit file information to other companies.
On the site, clicking the option “Click here to opt-in or opt- out” brings up the message, “Please select from the options listed below to opt out of lists supplied by Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion for firm offers of credit or insurance.”
It asks for your name, address, Social Security number and birth date. Many people are put off by this, but the Web site is the only site authorized by Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion for consumers to opt out. No other agency or private entity may legally take or transmit this information for you and there are scams seeking to do just that. Consumers should not provide personal information to any other company or person in connection with requesting Opt-Out services under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Your Social Security number and date of birth are not required to process your request, but providing this information helps ensure the staff successfully processes your request. The site’s security protocols and features “are designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access or alteration,” the site explains.
It says as an added security measure, it only displays the last four digits of your Social Security number on the confirmation screen. If you choose not to provide this number, the site will attempt to process your request without it. Sometimes the attempt fails, so you should provide the number. The credit bureaus have it anyway, and it won’t be added to any lists or marketed in any other way (per requirements of the act).
Clicking “submit” on page 2 brings the request for personal information and you have just 15 minutes to type the information requested, so having it all in front of you ensures you will finish the task within 15 minutes.
Through the Web site, you may opt out of receiving firm offers for five years. Another option is to opt out “permanently.” The act requires the consumer to submit a signed paper notice of election: the “Permanent Opt-Out Election Form” to achieve permanent opt out. You must initiate the “Permanent Opt-Out request” on the Web site and if you receive confirmation, you should print it along with the Permanent Opt-Out Election Form.
In the interim, the site completes a five-year opt-out request on your behalf within five business days. It then makes your request permanent after receiving the signed form in the mail.
Read a 28-item Q&A on the OptOutPrescreen site at tulsaworld.com/ OptOutQ&A.
Submit Action Line questions by calling 699-8888 or by e-mailing phil.mulkins@TulsaWorld.com or by U.S. mailing it to Tulsa World Consumer, PO Box 1770, Tulsa OK 74102-1770.
Originally published by PHIL MULKINS World Action Line Editor.
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