Deluged with credit card mail? Help is coming

Bob Sullivan Technology correspondent • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - Daniel Solove wanted to do an experiment.  So soon after he moved to Washington, D.C. last year to take a new job, he started saving credit card applications he received in the mail.  After 10 months, the George Washington University Law School professor had gathered 69 pieces of junk mail -- 20 alone from Capital One.

He’s not ready to tape his mailbox shut, but he’s annoyed at the constant marketing pitches.

“This is an unreasonable amount of hassling here,” Solove, author of The Digital Person, said. He was particularly frustrated by Capital One’s persistence. "I think their no-hassle card means they stop hassling you if you get it.  I find them incredibly pushy."

Capital One didn't return requests for comment.

Solove’s frustration is shared by many Americans.  Pre-approved credit card applications flood mailboxes around the country every day, and while it might seem impossible -– even more are headed to U.S. homes this year than ever before, by one measure.  According to Synovate, which tracks the industry through consumer surveys, an estimated 1.4 billion applications were sent in the first quarter of this year. That’s 5.8 applications per household every month.

But for Solove, and others who feel inundated by credit card junk mail, a bit of relief is on the way.  Starting in August, banks that mail pre-screened credit card applications to consumers must include a prominent notice advising consumers how to get off their mailing list. The new Federal Trade Commission regulations, mandated by the 2003 Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act, took effect Aug. 1.

Starting immediately, each mailing must include a notice in bold type on page 1 listing the phone number and Web site that allows consumers to cut off credit card solicitations. Consumers who call 1-888-5OPTOUT or visit www.optoutprescreen.com can “opt out” of most mailings. 

The right no one knows
But the phone number, and the Web site, are actually old news. Congress gave consumers the right to opt out back in 1996. The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1996 required the nation's credit bureaus to set up the opt out system, and to notify consumers of their rights “clearly and conspicuously,” said Katherine Armstrong, a spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission. 

But the opt out option wasn’t clear and conspicuous enough, consumer advocates say, since many consumers have no idea that alone would stop the junk mail.  A study conducted by the Federal Reserve in 2004 indicated only 6 percent of consumers had signed up to opt out.

The opt out rule was supposed to make credit card pitches more targeted, and reduce the amount of junk mail. Instead, said Brent Stratford of Synovate, the number of applications mailed home has risen steadily almost every year since.

Lack of participation led Congress to mandate the more obvious notification notices in its 2003 update to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  And this time, the rules are much more specific, right down to the font size and location of the opt out on the piece of mail.

The rules might seem overly detailed, said Chris Hoofnagle, a  spokesman for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.  But they are necessary because companies keep trying to evade the spirit of consumer protections, he said. 

“People are sometimes frustrated with degree of detail in regulations,” he said.  “But details are made necessary by extremely slippery tactics the industry will use to avoid consumer protections.”

For its part, the credit industry says consumers are aware of their rights, and points out that 6 percent participation means the system is working.

“It’s a discredit to consumers, assuming they don't know anything about it,” said Norm Magnuson, spokesman for the Consumer Data Industry Association, Inc., a lobby group for the credit industry. It maintains the list of consumers who opt out. “Consumers are probably more savvy than that.”

The Federal Reserve's survey also concluded that the opt out process was working.  In general, the more credit a consumer had, the more likely they were to opt out, a sign the system works, the report said. That makes sense, the Fed said, because those consumers would no longer be interested in new offers.  Consumers with six or more credit accounts were four times as likely as those with one or no accounts, the report said.

Curiously, Missouri and Colorado residents were the most likely to have signed up for the list, with about 10 percent participation. That's three times the rate of residents in Arkansas and West Virginia, where opt-out uptake was the lowest. The Fed report offered no explanation for the trend.

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