Earth Day: The Day After
It’s the day after Earth Day. I didn’t post about it yesterday because (a) I didn’t get around to it, and (b) I didn’t think there was anything that Mrs. PT and I should be doing that we aren’t. Well, Patrick over at Cash Money Life posted about 12 Energy Saving Tips which reminded me of one thing I need to be doing to help Mother Earth: I need to stop receiving junk mail.
Here’s what I’ve done so far:
OptOutPrescreen.com
Today I completed the opting-out process at OptOutPrescreen.com which removes my name from lists supplied by the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion) to be used for firm (preapproved / prescreened) offers of credit or insurance. This took less than 5 minutes and is effective for five years. You do have to provide you SSN and birth date.
Mrs. PT and I get no less than five credit card offers in the mail every week. It’s ridiculous. We instantly tear them up and drop them in the recycling bin. Such a waste of time and paper.
DMAChoice.org
Today I also registered with Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service which allowed me to remove my name from advertiser’s mailing lists. I complete their form, which they will send to their members, asking them to honor my preferences. This process also took less than 5 minutes. A credit card (for ID purposes) is needed to register. It is not charged. Since this process gives me a login and password, I can come back and change my preferences at any time.
Challenge to You!
I’ll promise to do a follow-up post soon to let you know if the mailings have stopped. Now I’m challenging you to get rid of your wasteful junk mail. Not only are you helping the environment, you are eliminating a lot of unnecessary spending temptation from your life.
If you’ve used one of these services and seen an effect let us know in the comments below.
Related posts:
Hi and welcome to ptMoney.com. I'm PT. Please visit often, download my 
Thanks! I used this and hope to be saving paper and wasted time too!!
I hate junk mail too! Thanks for the mention.
THANK YOU.
I opted out of the cc offers over a year ago (I think?) but I have been wondering how to get off all the OTHER lists that keep sending me crap. I am SO HAPPY you found the link! Now if only my local grocery stores that I never go to would stop sending me (well, “resident”) a freaking newspaper of all the deals currently going on, we’d really be getting somewhere.
@shanti – it’s just a matter of time till the govt cracks down on those market ads.
Hi there – great post. I was on the internet researching for some work I am doing for a non profit organization based in Calif. called JunkMailFixIt. These guys spend countless hours helping people reduce junkmail through their website as a win-win partnership. Their focus is of course on the internet. The problem with junk mail is getting out there and people are finally realizing there are options to opt out of this useless waste of paper. Thanks for getting people in gear! If anyone is interested and if you don’t mind me posting a link, the website can be found here:
Stop Junk Mail!
Stopping Junk Mail can be a challenge, but it can be done. I use MyJunkTree and they produced results. It takes time, but the junk mail was reduced. I stopped teh credit card offers, misc junk mail, weekly coupons, phone books and all the catalogs I no longer wanted. I even signed up on teh National Do Not Call Registry from thier web site. Check out thier website.
I happen to be one of the owners of MyJunkTree and as a new company I search the web to see if we are getting any visibility out there and it seems the word is getting out. Thanks for the support.
We launched the company because we were tired of all the junk mail we were receiving and we personally did not want to bounce all over the web to contact all the different companies to stop it all. First and foremost we wanted to let people choose what they wanted to let come to their home knowing that some people really do like some of the coupons and catalogs. So our clients choose what they want stopped.
We also had to provide a service that is different than the other services out there, so here is what we offer:
1. We have a database of over 1300 catalogs that you can choose to stop.
2. We have over a 2000 charities/Non-Profits that you can stop solicitations from.
3. Stop the delivery of the national phone directories.
4. Stop the delivery of the weekly coupons.
5. Stop the general credit card offers as well as the ones from your own major bank.
6. Stop the miscellaneous junk mail from the data brokers.
7. You can register on the National Do Not Call Registry from the website.
8. You can order your no strings attached free annual credit report right from the website.
9. We plant trees with every new membership.
And, yes we are a paid service and yes you can do everything that we do for free, if you want to do all the research and spend the time contacting the companies yourself it can easily be done. We have just done all of the legwork for our clients and feel there is value in the service we provide.
If you want to do more than just Stop Junk Mail that comes to your home, this site might also be of interest to you. Stopping Free Papers. It is a free service and they help you stop the delivery of all the free papers that are thrown in your driveway. The site is sponsored by MyJunkTree and it is totally free!