Letters! We get Letters! We get sacks and sacks of letters! Letterrrrrrrrrrs!

Always an entertaining segment on the Late Show with David Letterman was the CBS Mailbag. They quit doing it years ago, but when I go to get the mail, that theme song starts up in my head. Why? Junk mail. Credit offers. Insurance offers. Free* vacations I somehow won without entering. Catalogs for stores I'd never shopped at. We even started getting these official looking letters informing us that the warranty on one of our cars was about to expire and immediate action was required to continue coverage.

That warranty ran out years ago. I was not fooled by their ruse, but I can see how many would get sucked in. Why do we get all of these letters? Sacks and sacks of letters?


I hadn't opted out. That is, until now.

I'd heard about this many times but just never took the time to do it. The bogus warranty crap pushed me over the edge. But how could those scumbags know that I even owned a car??? The answer is simple.

Pre-screening.

Credit reporting agencies allow businesses to "pre-screen" you before making their offer via mail (oh so personal). I'd like to think that the original intent was somewhat legit, but they pretty much let anyone do it. By pre-screening me, the extended warranty jokers mentioned above could see that I'd had a car loan and what year we'd bought it. Bada-boom, bada-bing. Letter goes out.

Well, now I'm out. Opted out. Ridiculous that it is even something you would have to opt out of, but that's life. Maybe we'll save a couple trees in the process too.

Ready to opt out? Visit the official site, optoutprescreen.com

Have you already done this? How long did it take to notice a difference in your volume of mail?