How to Stop Getting Loan Mail: Opt Out at OptOutPrescreen

To stop getting loan mail, opt out of prescreened credit and insurance offers at OptOutPrescreen.com or by calling 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688). That single request removes your name from the marketing lists the credit bureaus sell to lenders and insurers, and you can choose a five-year block or make it permanent.¹ The whole process takes about ten minutes.

Where the Offers Come From

Pre-approved loan mail is not random. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, credit bureaus can sell lists of consumers who match a lender’s criteria, such as a credit score range or payment history, so the lender can send what the law calls a “firm offer of credit or insurance.”² The lender does not see your full credit report at this stage. It only knows you passed the filter.

Every prescreened offer has to include a disclosure box explaining that your credit file was used, that you met the sender’s criteria, and that you can opt out. It must also list the toll-free number and website for the opt-out system.³ If you have a letter in front of you, that fine print confirms it is a real prescreened offer and not a scam.

How to Opt Out at OptOutPrescreen.com

OptOutPrescreen.com is the official portal jointly run by the four consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion.⁴ It is the only system that pulls your name off the prescreened lists these bureaus sell, and it covers both credit and insurance solicitations.⁵

Have your full legal name, current mailing address, Social Security number, and date of birth ready. If you have moved in the last six months, keep your previous address handy too, because the bureaus use that information to match your request to the right consumer file.⁶ Because you are handing over a Social Security number, confirm you are on the real site (optoutprescreen.com) and not a lookalike.¹

Five-Year Opt-Out

This is the quickest option and can be completed entirely online or by phone. Enter your information, submit, and you are done. The election takes effect within five business days of the bureau receiving your request.² After five years, your name goes back on the lists automatically unless you renew.

Permanent Opt-Out

You can start a permanent opt-out online or by phone, but you must confirm it with a signed, mailed form. The system generates a Permanent Opt-Out Election form after you enter your information. Print it, sign it, and mail it to the address shown on the form.⁶ The request is not finalized until the bureaus process that physical document, and a permanent election stays in effect until you cancel it in writing.²

A common mistake: people start the permanent opt-out online and then forget to mail the signed form. If that happens, you are only covered for five years from your initial electronic request. Get the form in the mail within a week and set a reminder if you need one.

What to Expect After You Submit

The opt-out is active at the bureaus within five business days, but your mailbox will not clear that fast. Offers already printed and queued in the postal system will keep arriving for several weeks.¹ Do not assume the request failed if a few more offers show up during that wind-down.

The bureaus match opt-outs to specific addresses, so if you move, submit a new request tied to your new address or you can end up back on the lists.

What OptOutPrescreen Does Not Cover

Opting out through the bureaus blocks offers generated from credit file data. It does not touch three other pipelines, and each has its own fix.

Marketing from banks or card issuers you already do business with. Those offers come from inside your existing account relationship, not from a bureau list. Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, financial institutions must give you a privacy notice and a way to opt out of information sharing with unaffiliated third parties.⁷ To stop the lender’s own cross-sell mail, call the number on the back of your card or update marketing preferences in your online account. Once you submit the opt-out, it remains in effect even after the account is closed unless you cancel it.⁸

General junk mail, catalogs, and mailers from purchased lists. Register at DMAchoice.org, a service run by the Association of National Advertisers.⁹ The current online registration fee is $8 for ten years, and you can pick which categories to keep and which to block.¹⁰ Companies that do not participate will keep sending, but volume drops.

Unsolicited loan calls and texts. These are a separate problem with separate tools. Register your number at DoNotCall.gov, the FTC’s free National Do Not Call Registry, which covers home and mobile lines.¹¹ For robocalls and marketing texts, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act requires prior written consent, and you can revoke consent at any time, including by replying “STOP” to a text.¹²

Will Opting Out Hurt Your Credit

No. The inquiries lenders use to build prescreened lists are soft inquiries and do not affect your credit score. Opting out only removes your name from marketing lists. It does not change your credit file, your score, or your ability to borrow.⁴

When you apply for a loan yourself, the lender pulls your report based on your application, which is a completely separate process from prescreening. Opting out means you start the conversation instead of responding to someone else’s pitch. It never blocks a lender from reviewing your credit when you actually ask for a loan.

Changing Your Mind Later

If you decide you want to see prescreened offers again, use the same website or phone number and choose the opt-in option.¹ It works whether you originally chose the five-year block or the permanent election, and putting your name back on the lists has no effect on your credit.

1
Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
4
OptOutPrescreen.com. OptOutPrescreen.com
5
GovInfo. Prescreened Offers of Credit and Insurance
6
TransUnion. Prescreen Opt Out
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 6802 – Obligations With Respect to Disclosures of Personal Information
8
Federal Trade Commission. How To Comply with the Privacy of Consumer Financial Information Rule of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
9
Federal Trade Commission. How To Stop Junk Mail
10
DMAchoice. Consumer Choice Tools
11
Federal Trade Commission. National Do Not Call Registry
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 227 – Restrictions on Use of Telephone Equipment