How to Reduce Junk Mail and Telemarketing Calls

Are you sick of all those credit card offers and junk mail you're getting? How about those annoying telemarketer calls? Well here's some information to help you get off all of those lists.

• First go to www.donotcall.gov and register all of your phone numbers. Include cell numbers and don't forget the kids numbers as well. The registration is now permanent. If you don't want to do it online you can call the registry at 1-888-382-1222
• To reduce unsolicited mail you can contact the Direct Marketing Association at PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512 or print out an online form at www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglistdave. You have to print the form off and mail it in. It takes quite awhile but will stop some of the random mail that is sent your way.
• Every year companies that you do business with such as insurance, loan instituions, and phone companies will send you a privacy policy. Don't pitch it! They often give your information to third party marketing companies. The privacy policy will contain a toll free number so you can opt-out of receiving any offers from those companies.
• When you order online you are often added to mailing lists. If their is a comment box on their registration form specify that you do not wish to receive mailings. Sometimes they will have boxes giving you the option of receiving mailings. These boxes are often prechecked so make sure you uncheck them.
• Keep in mind that any time you sign up for a drawing you are putting yourself on a mailing/call list. Make a note on the back of the form that you don't wish to be included on their mailing list if the prize is too good to pass up or ask if you can give them an email address instead.
• Contact he four major credit bureaus and opt-out of the credit card prescreens that generate all of those credit card offers. You must do this for every name you are receiving offers for. Experian, Equifax, Innovis and TransUnion have joined together to create a website to make this easy. Just go to www.optoutprescreen.com and fill in the information. Check whether you wish to opt out for five years or permanently and send.

You'll have to do this everytime you move or change phone numbers to keep your junk mail to a minimum.

Telemarketers or Terrorists?

You may be on the National Do Not Call List but that doesn't mean you won't get call from telemarketers. Charities, political candidates and places you do business with can still call you to solicit funds or to sell you other services. Since most of these calls are outsourced you never know what you'll get into.

You can imagine my shock when I answered the telephone yesterday and was told that it was my bank calling. The young man informed me that several million credit card accounts had been breached and my bank wanted to send free credit reports to my house so I could review them and make certain that everything was okay.

So he freaked me out a little. Okay, he freaked me out a lot. He asked permission to transfer me to his verifier so they could make certain the reports would get to the correct address and they'd sign me up for an identity theft protection program. Thank goodness for that transfer. It allowed me to gather my wits.

When the young lady came on the telephone I knew that I wouldn't give her my address. If she was my bank she should have it. Correct? I also knew that if there had been a breach I wouldn't have to sign up with a service to get free credit reports and I could access my account online to check for errors.

The first thing she wanted to do was record the call. But I asked her why I should have to sign up for a service if the bank was at fault. She had no plausible answer but went into her hard sell pitch. I hung up the phone and contacted my bank. After being passed around a bit I did find out that the company who called me was associated with them and were marketing a product. Not because of an imminent danger but because they wanted to sell stuff.

I asked that my bank put me on a do not call or mail list for marketing purposes. I called the company back who had called me and requested to speak to a supervisor and filed a complaint about their intimidation tactics. I was assured that the sales person had acted of his own accord and would be reprimanded. But I'm not so sure.

The long and the short of it is, no matter what they tell you on the phone you've got to have a little breathing space. Get the name and number of the person calling you and the name of their company. Request information in the mail or via fax for your review. Don't ever let them push you into a corner or scare you into something that you'll regret later.

When you receive those privacy notices once a year in the mail from companies that you do business with call their opt out number and you can be removed from calling and mailing lists. To become part of the National Do Not Call Registry go to https://www.donotcall.gov/ and don't forget to register your cell phone number. This registration will never expire.