To stop loan offers in the mail, opt out of credit bureau prescreening at OptOutPrescreen.com or by calling 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688). That single step removes your name from the marketing lists Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis sell to lenders, and it’s the source of most of the “pre-approved” envelopes filling your mailbox. You can opt out for five years online or by phone, or permanently by mailing a signed form.1Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
Opt Out Through OptOutPrescreen
OptOutPrescreen.com is the centralized system run jointly by all four major credit bureaus. Whether you use the website or the 1-888-5-OPT-OUT phone line, you get two choices:1Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
- A five-year opt-out, which you can complete entirely online or by phone with no paperwork.
- A permanent opt-out, which you start online or by phone, then finish by printing the Permanent Opt-Out Election form, signing it, and mailing it in. The lifetime removal only takes effect once the signed form is received.
The system asks for your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. Handing over an SSN on a web form feels wrong, but the bureaus use it only to match your request to your credit file so they don’t remove the wrong person’s name.1Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
Your request is processed within about five days. Offers will keep arriving for several weeks after that, because lenders buy their mailing lists in advance and yours was already on the ones printed before your opt-out took effect. Those stragglers aren’t a sign the opt-out failed.1Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
If you change your mind later, the same site and phone line let you opt back in.1Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
Why Lenders Are Sending You Offers
Understanding the pipeline helps you know what opting out will and won’t accomplish. Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis maintain financial profiles on hundreds of millions of Americans, and lenders pay them for lists of consumers who match specific criteria: a minimum credit score, clean payment history, a certain debt range. The lender describes its ideal borrower, the bureau produces a matching list of names and addresses, and that list becomes the mailing roster.1Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
Every prescreened solicitation you get has to include a notice telling you that your credit information was used, why you were selected, and how to opt out. The address and toll-free number for the opt-out system have to appear on the mailing itself. Those aren’t courtesies. They’re required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
What OptOutPrescreen Won’t Stop
OptOutPrescreen only blocks offers generated from credit bureau prescreening lists. It does nothing about mail from lenders who found you through other channels, and there are several.
County property records reveal new homeowners, which is why closing on a house triggers a wave of refinance and home equity pitches. Voter registration and motor vehicle records feed marketer databases. Commercial data brokers compile and resell information from loyalty programs, online purchases, sweepstakes entries, and warranty cards, and track life events like moves, graduations, and marriages so lenders can hit you when you’re most likely to need money.
DMAchoice
The Association of National Advertisers runs DMAchoice.org, a registry that opts you out of direct mail from participating marketers. Online registration is $8 and lasts ten years. A mail-in registration is $9.3ANA. DMAchoice Registration Information Not every marketer participates, but many major catalog and financial companies do, so it noticeably cuts volume when paired with OptOutPrescreen.
Individual Data Brokers
Acxiom, Epsilon, Oracle, and others maintain their own opt-out pages, though finding them can be deliberately hard. A 2025 Senate investigation found that more than 30 data brokers had used website code to hide their opt-out pages from search engines. If a specific company keeps mailing you and its opt-out page isn’t turning up in searches, check the small-print privacy notice on the mailing itself. Federal and state law often require a working opt-out link or address there.
Mail for a Previous Resident
If offers keep coming for someone who used to live at your address, write “Not at this address” on the envelope and put it back in your outgoing mail. That works for first-class mail, which the postal service will return to sender. Bulk-rate advertising mail (marked presorted standard) won’t be returned, so throw those away. You can also leave a note inside your mailbox listing only current residents so your carrier knows who actually lives there.
Do not file a change-of-address form for a previous resident. Doing that on someone else’s behalf is a federal offense. If writing “Not at this address” isn’t working, talk to your carrier or visit your local post office and ask them to update their records.
Mail for a Deceased Family Member
Write “Deceased — Return to Sender” on incoming mail and return it. To stop the mailings more broadly, register the person’s name on the Deceased Do Not Contact List at ims-dm.com, which feeds major marketing databases. Registration is $6.4Deceased Do Not Contact Registration. Deceased Do Not Contact Registration To actually forward the person’s mail, you need to visit a post office in person with documentation showing you’re the executor or administrator; a death certificate alone isn’t enough.
Shred What Arrives in the Meantime
Until the offers stop, treat every prescreened letter as an identity theft risk. Someone who intercepts a pre-approved credit card offer can attempt to open the account in your name, sometimes just by completing the response form and redirecting the card to a different address.
Shred anything with your name and address before discarding it. A cross-cut shredder is far more effective than a strip-cut model, which produces ribbons that can be pieced back together. No shredder? Tear the documents into small pieces and split them across separate trash bags.
If prescreened offers show up addressed to a child in your household, take that seriously. It can mean someone has used the child’s Social Security number fraudulently. The FTC recommends sending an opt-out request for the child directly to each credit bureau, with copies of the child’s birth certificate, Social Security card, and your government-issued ID. Suspected child identity theft can also be reported at IdentityTheft.gov.1Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
If a Lender Keeps Mailing You After You Opt Out
Once the several-week wind-down has passed and a lender is still sending prescreened offers, that company may be violating the FCRA. File a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov or by calling (855) 411-2372. The CFPB shares complaints with other federal and state agencies for enforcement.5Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Credit and Consumer Reporting Complaint Notice
Keep the envelopes. Under the FCRA’s civil liability provision, a lender that willfully continues sending prescreened offers after your opt-out is processed can be liable for actual damages or statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation, plus punitive damages and attorney’s fees at the court’s discretion.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance Documented dates on continued mailings make any complaint or claim considerably stronger.