How to stop prescreened credit and insurance offers

Late autumn is when the mailbox gets heavy. Alongside the holiday catalogs come the envelopes that say you have been "preselected" for a card, "prequalified" for a loan or picked for a car insurance quote, often with your name already printed on a reply form. Most of them go straight into the recycling bin. They should not go there whole, and if you would rather not get them at all, there is one official opt-out that cuts off most of them where they start.

Below: where these offers come from, how to read the notice the law puts on each one, how the opt-out works, what to expect afterward and what it leaves alone.

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Picked from published documentation and reviews, not our own testing. We earn a commission from some services we link to. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The full Privacy kit

Where a prescreened offer comes from

A prescreened offer starts with a lender or an insurer, not with you. The company decides what kind of customer it wants, for example people in a certain score range with no recent late payments, and asks a credit bureau for a list of consumers whose files fit. The FTC describes it in those terms: the company sets its own requirements and bases them on what is in people's credit reports, such as payment history or a credit score.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is what allows this. Normally a credit bureau can share your report only with someone who has a permissible purpose, usually because you applied for something. Section 604(c) of the Act makes an exception for transactions you did not start, as long as the company makes a "firm offer of credit or insurance". The Act defines that as an offer that will be honored if your credit report shows you meet the criteria used to select you. The company may still confirm that you continue to meet them, verify what you write on the application and require collateral it disclosed up front. What it may not do is use the list purely for marketing and then turn everyone down.

What the company gets from the bureau is limited too. Under the same section it can receive your name and address, an identifier used only to confirm who you are, and other information that does not reveal your history with any particular creditor. The lender learns that you fit its box. It does not see your full report at that stage.

Two questions come up every time this topic does.

• Does it hurt my credit score? No. The FTC says so plainly, and the CFPB lists prescreening by prospective lenders among "soft" inquiries, which show up only when you look at your own report and are not visible to anyone else who pulls it.
• Doesn't a credit freeze stop it? It does not. The federal freeze law lists exceptions, and one of them covers a person using credit information for the purposes in section 604(c). If you froze your files after a breach, as our guide to the first hour after a data breach letter suggests, and the offers keep coming, nothing is broken.

There is one case where the bureaus take you off the lists automatically. An extended fraud alert, which identity theft victims can place with an identity theft report, excludes you from prescreened lists for five years.

Reading the notice on the offer in your hand

Every prescreened offer has to say that it is one and tell you how to stop them. Section 615(d) of the Act requires a clear statement that information from your credit report was used, that you were selected because you met the company's criteria, that the offer may not be honored if you turn out not to meet them, that you have the right to stop your file being used for offers you did not ask for, and how to use that right. The CFPB's Regulation V sets out how the statement must look, which makes it easy to spot once you know what you are looking for.

On the front: the short notice

What you will see: a boxed or otherwise set-off block on the front of the first page of the main letter, in type at least 12 point and larger than the body text, in bold, italics, underline or a contrasting color. It says you can opt out of prescreened offers, gives a toll-free number and tells you where to find the longer notice.

What it means: this mailing came from a credit bureau prescreen list, so the opt-out below will reach it. If an offer has no such notice, it probably came from some other list, and the bureau opt-out is unlikely to stop it.

Inside: the long notice

What you will see: a paragraph under the heading PRESCREEN & OPT-OUT NOTICE, in capital letters and underlined, set apart from the rest of the text with blank lines and indented margins, in type no smaller than 8 point.

What it means: it repeats the points the Act requires and gives the opt-out website and phone number. When I worked in compliance at a consumer lender, this notice was one of the items checked on every mailer before it went out, type size included, because the format is spelled out in the rule. Read it once and you will recognize it in seconds on every envelope after that.

Somewhere in the envelope: the reply form

What you will see: a form or card with your name and address already printed, sometimes with an invitation or reservation code.

What it means: that piece of paper is the reason not to toss these offers whole. It tells anyone who pulls it from your recycling your name, your address and that a lender already considers your file a good fit.

Opting out, step by step

The opt-out is run by the nationwide credit bureaus, which the FCRA requires to keep a notification system with a toll-free number. The CFPB says the service removes your name from the lists supplied by Equifax, Experian, TransUnion and Innovis.

1. Go to the real site. Type optoutprescreen.com into your browser rather than clicking a search ad, or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688). The site only opens from internet connections in the United States and its territories, so a VPN set to another country will get you an error page.
2. Choose how long. You can opt out for five years online or by phone, or permanently. The permanent route starts the same way and ends with a form you sign and mail.
3. Fill in your details. The site asks for your name and address, and for your Social Security number and date of birth. The FTC notes that the last two are optional, though the site says they help it process the request. This is one of the few opt-outs where I think giving them is reasonable, since the bureaus already hold both and use them to find your file. Give them only after you have checked that you are on the real site.
4. For a permanent opt-out, finish the paperwork. Print the Permanent Opt-Out Election form, sign it and mail it. If you called instead, the bureaus must send you the form within five business days of your request.
5. Write it down. Note the date, the option you chose and when it runs out. Our full opt-out guide suggests a removal log for people-search sites, and this belongs in the same log. For a five-year opt-out, put a reminder in your calendar a few weeks before it expires.

If you change your mind later, the same site and phone number let you opt back in.

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Chosen from specifications, policies and published reviews; we have not tested these ourselves. More in the Privacy kit

What to expect afterward

• Within about a week: the CFPB says the bureaus put the request into effect within five business days, and the FTC says requests are processed within five days.
• The next several weeks: offers keep arriving for a while. Some companies already had your name from a list pulled before you opted out, and those mailings are already printed or on their way. The FTC warns that it may take several weeks before they stop.
• After that: a noticeable drop, not silence. The next section explains what keeps coming.
• Five years on: the online or phone opt-out lapses unless you mailed the signed form.

What the opt-out does not stop

This is where expectations usually go wrong, so it is worth being precise.

• Offers built from other lists. The CFPB says the opt-out does not affect offers from companies that do not use lists compiled by the nationwide credit bureaus. Card issuers can still send invitations to apply when they get your name from other sources.
• Companies you already do business with. Your own bank or card issuer can keep marketing to you because you are already its customer.
• General junk mail. Catalogs, charity appeals and store flyers come from marketing lists, not credit files. DMAchoice, run by the Association of National Advertisers, handles those for a small fee, and the FTC says the mail registration lasts ten years. The FTC's page on prescreened offers covers both programs.
• Calls, email and online ads. Sales calls are a matter for the National Do Not Call Registry, and email and ad targeting are separate again.
• People-search listings. Those sites are a different industry, built mostly from public records and marketing data, and our piece on the FCRA and people-search sites explains why the Act rarely reaches them.

Opting out does not change your credit report or your score, and it does not stop you applying for any card or policy you choose. You simply stop appearing on the lists that lenders and insurers buy from the bureaus.

The offers already in your drawer

Opting out does nothing for the pile that has already arrived. Before it goes in the recycling, destroy anything that shows your name and address or carries a code tied to your file: the reply form, the letter itself and any pre-filled application.

A strip-cut shredder leaves long ribbons that can be lined up again with patience. A cross-cut model turns a page into small flakes, and a roller stamp that prints a dense pattern over your address is handy for the odd piece you would rather not feed to a shredder, such as a padded envelope or a parcel label. The two picks below were chosen from their specifications and published reviews, not from any testing on our part.

Privacy kit

• 12-sheet cross-cut paper shredderOld statements, pre-approved credit offers and medical bills stop being readable trash.On Amazon
• Identity-blocking roller stamp (3 pack)Hides your name and address on labels and letters before they go in the bin.On Amazon

Chosen from specifications, policies and published reviews; we have not tested these ourselves.

Ten minutes, start to finish

1. Take one offer from the pile and find the boxed notice on the front, so you know what you are dealing with.
2. Type optoutprescreen.com into your browser and choose five years or permanent.
3. If you chose permanent, print, sign and mail the form the same day, while it is in front of you.
4. Write the date and the option in your removal log, with a reminder before it expires.
5. Shred the offers you already have.
6. If catalogs and charity mail bother you as much as the card offers, register with DMAchoice too.

Once those six steps are done, the only thing left is the occasional envelope from a company you already bank with, and that one goes in the shredder as well.

Your next three steps

1. Log every old address in the opt-out checklist; each one is its own trail.
2. Black out your name and address on labels with an identity-blocking stamp before boxes and envelopes go out.
3. Keep new cards and tax forms out of reach with a locking mailbox.