The Dangers of Pre-Approved Credit Card Invitations
What to Do With Pre-Approved Credit Card Invitations
If you have good credit and you haven’t removed yourself from the marketing lists of the three credit bureaus, chances are that you’ve received pre-approved credit card invitations at some point or another. You know the ones I’m talking about -- they come with a plastic card that looks like a real credit card but it’s not -- or sometimes they actually do come with real credit cards and all you have to do is call a number to activate them. What happens if these mailings fall into the wrong hands? You’d better know what you need to do in order to protect yourself from credit card fraud.
Check Your Mail Daily
If you have a street-side mailbox without a lock on it, make sure you get your mail each and every day. Leaving mail in your mailbox overnight can be dangerous. If you receive a pre-approved credit card invitation in the mailbox during the night and an identity theft criminal is going from mailbox to mailbox seeing what they can dig up, you’re info is going to end up in their hands.
Shred Unwanted Documents
Sometimes pre-approved credit card invitations are so numerous they clog up the mailbox. It can be tempting to just throw the offers into the trash without even opening them. However tempting it may be, never throw pre-approved credit card invitations into the trash without shredding them first. Simply tearing them up won’t be enough. Put them through a cross-cut shredder so they can be of no use to identity theft criminals.
Get Off the List
The best way to ensure that identity theft criminals don’t get your pre-approved credit card invitations is to get off the marketing list of the three credit bureaus. In order to do this, you’re going to need to send each bureau a letter formally requesting that they remove you from their lists. The addresses for the three credit bureaus are listed below.
Equifax Credit Information Services Inc.
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
TransUnion LLC
Consumer Disclosure Center
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
Experian
475 Anton Boulevard
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Making sure that pre-approved credit card invitations don’t end up in the wrong hands may take time and effort, but not as much time and effort as it would take to clear up your name if your identity were to be stolen as a result of not taking these preventative measures.