One day you are checking your mailbox and it’s full of nothing but credit card and loan offers saying that you are already approved. This happens day after day, and you might be wondering why you are getting so many of these offers. It’s because lenders and credit card companies try to entice new customers by sending these kinds of offers out.

How this works is by you having some sort of credit history already, usually an open line of credit. Companies will ask the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and Transunion) for a list of people who might meet their qualifications for a good customer or borrower. You may even see these companies and lenders looking at your credit history appear on your credit report as “soft inquiries.” Not every credit reporting agency will show these types of inquiries because they do not affect your credit score, so there is no need to worry about these prescreened offers affecting either your credit history or credit score compared to a “hard inquiry.”

You may have the choice to opt-out from these types of prescreened offers, but you need to consider the reason why you would want to do so:

• Besides filling up your mailbox, these prescreened offers are harmless and do not affect your credit score or history. They may provide you with opportunities and information if you are legitimately shopping around for a new credit card, personal loan, or mortgage.

• Pre-selected offers also give you the chance to get a new line of credit or installment loan without much hassle as the lender has already approved you, eliminating the headache and need to go through an approval process.

• Sometimes these types of offers may give out exclusive deals or lines of credit that may not be available publicly.

But let’s say you don’t need any new lines of credit and you’re sick of these offers. Luckily, there’s a way to opt-out of this stream of credit card proposals that are filling up your mailbox. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the three credit bureaus can sell your information to lenders and credit card companies in massive lists, and with the FCRA, you are also able to opt-out of these lists.

You can visit www.optoutprescreen.com, a website in partnership with all credit bureaus to opt-out of these types of offers. You can also call their toll-free number at 1-888-567-8688 to get out of these prescreened offers. Be aware that you will need to provide personal information for them to process the request.

Keep in mind that once you fill out the form, it will take a while for the effect to kick in. Not only that, you may still receive them if the credit card companies and lenders get their list from another source like a parent company of a lender you worked with in the past.

If you want to improve your credit score in other ways, call us at Fix Your Credit Consulting at (877) 212-2450 for a free consultation.

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