Have you ever wasted multiple minutes in a day wondering if there was an easy, simple way to stop all the unwanted pre-approved credit card offers from showing up in your mailbox? Probably not. Nevertheless, there is in fact an incredibly easy way to stop the continuous flow.

All you need is about 30 seconds and access to this website: www.optoutprescreen.com. Per the site, “optoutprescreen.com is the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry website to accept and process requests from consumers to opt-in or opt-out of firm offers of credit or insurance”. Basically, it’s a site created by the four big credit reporting companies that allows you to remove your name from the list they send to credit card companies. You can opt-out for five years through the website. If you want to opt-out permanently you’ll unfortunately have to mail in a form.

There are a couple of benefits to opting out. The obvious: less junk mail! The not-so-obvious, but more important one: privacy and protection from identity thieves. One of the common strategies used by identity thieves is opening illegal lines of credit with stolen preapproved letters. So, if you’re like me and have an ever growing pile of junk that needs to be shredded, it’s time to take a stand! Let’s make that a slightly smaller ever growing pile of junk!

What’s the downside of opting out? Well, not much. I guess it is possible that you’re in the market for a new card and are curious what benefits are out there. Luckily for you, it’s 2015. There are some pretty efficient ways to compare cards these days. Check outwww.creditcards.com/. If worse comes to worst and you discover that you really miss that daily tradition of opening offers and reading all about those great benefits and all their accompanying disclosures, well, you can just opt right back in. Like I said, simple.

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