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Friday, September 24, 2010

Save Your Sanity

Are you still getting those pre-approved credit card applications in the mail? While it may make you feel proud that you "qualify" for these, let me tell you why it's a bad idea to get those. First, if you read the fine print, usually these aren't really pre-approved, you probably still have to qualify. Second, if it IS legit and someone is giving you another credit card, that may mess up your credit, even if you don't use it, if you needed to get a loan for whatever reason, that credit card may cause you to have too much available credit and it may get you a big fat "NO". Third, it's too risky to have these pre-approved credit applications floating around, suppose that envelope got "misplaced", stolen or you throw it in the trash and someone else gets it, it's possible for someone to take that pre-approved credit application and fill it out, use it, max it out before you even know what hit you.

I used to get these pre-approved credit cards all the time, once a bank I had no dealings with sent me a credit card with a $5000 credit line, I never asked for this, it was a real credit card, not just a pre-approved application... suppose I thought it was just another piece of junk mail and tossed it out without opening it? Suppose someone stole it before it ever got to me, I would have not known about it until it was too late.

So how do you stop this from happening? It's simple, there is a way to opt out of getting any more of these. Here is where you go to opt out, https://www.optoutprescreen.com/
I know this works, I did this years ago and haven't received any pre-approved credit card applications since.

Another thing you might want to do is sign up on the DO NOT CALL registry, this is supposed to make it so that telemarketers cannot call you. https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

Doing these two things will make your life easier and safer.



Thanks for visiting!

1 comment:

  1. I'll have to try the website. Even though I write NO, NEVER in big black letters across the application and send it back in their prepaid envelope I still get them. Thanks for the info.


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