Junk mail. The paper equivalent of telemarketers: unwanted, often unsolicited, and definitely annoying. When you’re at the point where you spend so much time sifting through catalogs and credit card offers and donation requests that you miss the one or two pieces of actual mail – like your bills! – try these six steps to stop unwanted junk mail.
1. Get off the mailing lists to stop junk mail at its source.
Consumers register at DMA’s consumer website for a processing fee of $2 for a period of ten years. Using their online registration may be a faster way to get results.
It is a step-by-step process allowing you to decide what mail you do and do not wish to receive. It may take up to 90 days for the mailings to stop since many are already in process.
If you are an existing customer of a mailer, you will also have to contact the company directly and request to be removed or placed on the DO NOT SHARE list.
2. Unwanted Phone Books
Do you find it annoying to discover a big, fat phone book on your door step? The digital world has made the printed phone book a relic. To put an end to this waste, when you receive a phone book you do not want, go online to opt out at: https://www.yellowpagesoptout.com/homepage or you may call 877-243-8339 to opt out. See also: https://www.yellowpagesoptout.com/dex-media-inc
3. Credit Card Solicitations
To eliminate credit card promotional offers, call 1-888-567-8688 (888-5OPT-OUT) or visit https://www.optoutprescreen.com/opt_form.cgi. You may choose either a 5-year removal online or request a permanent removal. For personal credit cards you already have, call or write to the company and request to be placed you on their “in house” list not sold or traded to other companies.
4. Charity Solicitations
If you contribute regularly to a charitable organization, ask them to send only one donation request per year. Additionally, the American Institute on Philanthropy offers several tips on reducing junk mail and phone solicitations from charities at https://www.charitywatch.org/charity-donating-articles/seven-tips-for-reducing-unwanted-mail-and-phone-appeals.
5. Junk Promo Products
Look for any of these phrases – return service requested, forwarding service requested, address service requested, or change service requested – on the piece of mail, then write “refused, return to sender” on the unopened envelope and place back in the mail.
Mail sent to, “Resident,” “Current Resident,” or “Current Occupant,” can be refused if it contains one of the above endorsements, or if it is sent First Class.
6. Direct Marketers Mailing Lists
This is for the smaller lists not on the DMA. Send or phone in all the variations of your name and address to the list brokers and direct marketing firms listed below.
Save the labels of all the variations of the names and addresses, which come to your mailbox. You will want to save every variation because it is another name on a list, which gets sold.
If you prefer to go the postal mail route, cut and paste the actual mailing labels onto a sheet of paper, make copies, add your signature beside each name variation on each sheet, and send them off to each of the addresses below.
Your note should read, “Please remove my name and address from your mailing lists and do not rent, sell, or trade my name or address.”
Valpak
1 Valpak Ave. N.
St. Petersburg, FL 33716
1-727-399-3000
https://www.valpak.com/coupons/show/mailinglistsuppression – Have the Valpak mailing label handy and fill in your information exactly as it is printed.
Valassis Direct Mail, Inc.
Consumer Assistance
PO Box 249
Windsor , CT 06095
1-800-437-0479, between 8:30 and 5:00 EST
Unsubscribe from their RedPlum/RetailMeNot/Save publication here in the lower right-hand corner of the webpage: https://www.retailmenot.com/everyday/unsubscribe
Epsilon Data Services – https://us.epsilon.com/consumer-information
This company manages the databases behind electronic and direct mail. You can opt-out here but you if you are an existing customer of a company, you will have to contact that company directly and ask to be put on the DO NOT SHARE list. The address is below.
optout@epsilon.com
Epsilon
Attention: Privacy
P.O. Box 1478
Broomfield, CO 80038
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