by Daily 0 comments

Do you get a lot of credit card pre-approved junk mail? Have you worried about what happens when a criminal gets a hold of your mail and then completes the pre-approved application? Have you ever wonder whether you can get these credit card companies to stop sending pre-approved credit card offer?

If all the answer is above, than you may want to try using optoutprescreen.com. The website overall looks pretty legit. If you access optoutprescreen.com from overseas,it will actually detects that and said that you can only access the website from within the US.

It also supports 1024 bit SSL encryption. The worrisome thing about this site is that it does ask for a social security number. Apparently, the website is run by Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion. These companies are the major credit reporting agencies and therefore are legitimate. However, it still does not give someone a peace of mind in terms of whether you really want to share more information than you need to to these companies. However, it is understandable as the social security number is the best way to identify that someone wants to opt out of the offers.

Ultimately, it is balancing your need for more privacy versus having junk mail for pre-approved credit card being sent to you and running the risk of identity thieves intercepting those mails.

To further verify the legitimacy of the website, the best site to go to is the Federal Trade Commission website at www.ftc.gov.If you go to: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre17.shtm , you will find that FTC acutally give 2 choices for opting out pre-screen offers.

The choices are:

1) Call toll-free 1-888-5-OPTOYT (1-888-67-8688)

2) Visit www.optoutprescreen.com

So, obviously, given the fact that it is in the FTC website and that www.optoutprescreen.com is a link from their website, it has to be legitimate. The FTC website also verifies that the website is run by the major credit reporting companies.