MadRad

Is anyone else astonished by the amount of junk mail you get in the US? (And, for that matter, the number of spammy phone calls). How on earth do you stop them?

It's only Wednesday and I've received my 4th credit card junk letter for this week - all from the same ruddy company! To go along with the million or so other bits of junk mail received since moving here, and the endless 'vote for me' automated phone calls!

Is there anything like TPS/MPS/mail opt-out over here?

traceym

Check the mail carefully, somewhere there will be an opt out mail address, its a PITA as you have to do it with each piece of junk mail that comes, it pays off in the end though. We moved house in April and have been junk mail free for about 2 months now. We had a redirect by USPS when we moved, it's actually them who sell your name and address on to the junk mail companies!

Burn1911

yeah that's what I did, I think there is a generic # you can ring to opt out of all credit card offers, also for the spammy phonecalls register your #'s on the "Do not call list" (google it) and this definately definately works!!!

It is astonishing how much junk mail we get though, I am sure it is the same in the UK too though.....

Jerseygirl

There is...it's been discussed on here before. The 'do not call list' certainly cuts the number of sales calls down. I haven't tried the one for spam mail...so I don't know how effective it is...as I said there should be an old thread or two about it.

traceym

Oh and once you begin to opt out check the address on all your junk mail, the posties will stick it in any box. Tell them nicely that you've opted out, if you do it about 20 times they begin to get the message, after telling them 40 times it begins to sink in, by 50 .......Sorted!

WARPed

Bloody Verizon and their new fangled FiOS is the bain of my Junk Mail life right now. At least 4 letters a week wanting me to take it up. If they do that to every home it must cost the a fortune!

MsElui

i was getting the credit card letters too. I rang the general number on the sheet and they put me through to the right dept (no hassle) and i gave them my details and they said any new mailings would cease. Would not do the same for my husband unless he spoke to them himself (so that aint gonna happen lol).

I am also getting a lot of spammy phone calls at the moment. I am quite blunt with them now and as if i can identify the 'tpye' i tell them im simply not interested in xxx and say goodbye and put the phone down. The ones that try to take 20 minutes to tell you about what they are giving you for free and only then tell you the actual damage are very irritating and i just keep interrupting them and say 'but what does it cost' they try anything to not tell me until they have droned on about the freebies but i just interrupt again and say it again (as many times as it takes) til they admit the costs then tell them im not interested. I used to feel that i had to listen but im pretty ruthless now and say politely not interested and put the phone down.

traceym

Not mine, we dont get any at all, like I say PITA but it pays off in the end!

Sally Redux

We get a pile of special offer papers/mags from the mailman almost every day, which go straight in the recycling, a terrible waste of paper and ink. Every week or so a batch of postcards and a batch of flyers for local businesses. I throw them out but my neighbour saves all the ones for Indian restaurants for me. Several magazines with local ads/coupons a month and a mag specifically targetted at things like botox treatments called 'Image'. I used to be inundated with credit card offers, I did register to reduce those and they're down to about 3 a week. I'm on the 'do not call' register and only get about 4 cold calls a day.

GeoffM

The UK isn't that far behind! We certainly get more junk mail than real mail, and the postie delivers unaddressed bundles of junk at least a couple of times a week. Add to that the takeaway leaflets that arrives every week for the same crappy takeaway.

Then there are the phone calls. We're on TPS (and MPS for the mail), and have been since the day we moved in. However, we're now getting at least a dozen calls a week from sodding credit agencies offering to reduce our debt (which we don't have). Mostly from the same Indian-sounding bloke who surely must have learnt my tactic by now - asking who is calling, asking them to hold, then leaving the phone by the radio. I managed 4 minutes 7 seconds once before they gave up! A couple of days ago I was in a bad mood and in the politest and clearest voice told them to f*** off, yet they didn't understand me and asked me to repeat it - which I did, of course. They still didn't get it so I did the hold trick. Only got a couple of minutes on that one. If it's one less phone call they have time to make to another victim then I feel that's my good deed for the day!

Of course, I've complained to OFCOM, TPS, BT, and some other agency, but they pass me from pillar to post, blaming other people. But they have no powers if the call allegedly comes from overseas - and it is perfectly legal to falsify the caller ID on the phone - allegedly so that call centres can present a freephone number rather than a geographic landline number.

Grrr!

cranston

www.optoutprescreen.com

This site will stop the credit card offers. It works like a charm for us.

No ideas on all the other junk that comes through..I guess they say they are protected under free speech.

robin1234

Yes - the credit card one works. I haven't had an unsolicited credit card offer for years.

For us, the biggest category of unsolicited junk mail seems to be car insurance. Do people really waste their time & energy with competing quotes, switching carriers to save a few $$? Life is too short..

But, most of our junk mail is not really unsolicited; because it comes from Companies/non-profits that we support.

First, LL Bean. Used to be that they'd send you one big catalog each season, and the specialist catalogs once a year. Now we get several every week from them. Including the Kids catalog; they've been sending that to us for 20 years. Probably last ordered from it in about 1998.. haven't they figured that kids grow up, move out, and then actually order their own LL Bean stuff (from the adult catalog??)

The worst offender is the AARP. We've been members for a decade, I think they do good work. But (not exaggerating) we get 20-30 pieces of junk mail each week either from them directly, or from insurance companies etc. to whom they've sold their name.

celticgrid

I get the Fios stuff too, but live in an area where it isn't available and is not expected to be in the foreseeable future.

It might cost them a fortune but clearly they don't care as they are not even adopting the simplest of filters to the process.

sir_eccles

If you want to get selective about which catalogs you get you can try:

http://www.catalogchoice.org/

you plug in the code numbers in the front of the catalogs and they deal with sending the stop requests and tracking them. It can take a while for them to get processed though.

Redwing

When I receive junk mail, if there is a PP return envelope, I stuff it all in it, and send it back. We are on the "Do not call" list, but I think political calls are excluded. Surprise, surprise. When they do call, I interrupt, and say "Excuse me, but I do not intend to vote for you, and I am not interested." Of course, that does not stop them, and I say "Excuse me, but what part of what I just said do you not understand?" That usally throws them for a loop, and they utter some gibberish about calling an 800 number.