This has a twofold advantage: helping the environment and saving yourself from possible identity theft.
Yesterday my husband found out that he has a late payment due for his credit card . . . that he didn't even know he had. Sure, he COULD have ordered pizza back in Baltimore (9 times in less than a month), but I'm sure it must have been a hell of a delivery charge to send it about 900 miles south to Florida.
Yeah, so we reported to the fraud department (turns out he/she tried to order a computer from Gateway, too . . . which is understandable, because after eating $550 worth of pizza in one month, undoubtedly your ass is far too large to fit through your front door, and being able to order food online would be helpful, I'd imagine. You'd better believe I'm doing my own "research" with the companies involved, and I'm taking down addresses, numbers, and hopefully I'll get a name eventually).
And, in less than 24 hours, I've done everything I could to A) Check our credit, and B) remove ourselves from all junk mail lists as much as possible to avoid this from happening again.
I'm in the process of shredding more junk mail - almost entirely credit card offers. I think I get about one a day, between myself and my husband, but it piles up. I'm taking a break, only because it's the third time my little shredder overheated and it won't work until it has cooled down.
Two things to help decrease your mailbox load:
1) Contact the Direct Marketing Association for their "Mail Preferences". Go to http://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist for the info, or just write to:
Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
PO Box 643
Carmel, NY 10512
Be sure to make note of EVERY possible variation of your name.
2. Dial 1-888-5-OPTOUT. This will remove your name from the lists of the 4 major Consumer Credit Reporting Companies for firm offers or insurance offers (which is a HUGE chunk of the mail I get). It's a pain in the butt to go through that automated voice system, but the option to opt out of credit card offers FOREVER is worth it. Apparently, you can do this online too: https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t
Sure, both will require you to mail something or something to be sent back to you in the mail (the second will send a confirmation letter), but the overall effect of not getting a letter a day that you're going to end up feeding to your shredder is well worth it. Not to mention the peace of mind in knowing that it's one less thing for identity thieves to go on.
