Saturday, September 23, 2000
Personal finance
Credit card offers push envelope
The caller sounded nervous on my voice mail: Had she just made a big mistake?
All she wanted to do was get the credit card offers to stop coming. That's all. No biggie. Frustrated by the handful she receives every day, she did something rash and uncharacteristic.
She called the number on the back of the offer, left her name and number and asked to be removed from the mailing list.
“Did I just give my information to another scam?” she said. “Is this a legitimate service? I've been concerned about this all week.”
Her annoyance is hardly unique, and her concern is hardly unwarranted. According to the market research firm BAIGlobal, there were 3.45 billion credit card offers mailed in 1998 — that's almost 14 for every man, woman and child in the entire country. (And that's not even counting the endless scores of other “junk mail” that use similar lists.)
The number of credit card offers declined in 1999 to a mere 2.87 billion — only about 11 for each of us. The acceptance rate also declined from 1.2 percent in 1998 to 1.0 percent in 1999. Still, that's a total of 28.7 million people getting new credit cards through the mail.
Some statistics
While we're at it, check out these stats, courtesy of the National Foundation for Consumer Credit:
• The average American household with at least one credit card carried a balance of $7,564 in 1999 — up from $2,985 in 1990.
• There were 506 million VISA, MasterCard, Discover and American Express cards in circulation in the United States last year among the 78 million card-holding families (that's 6.5 cards per U.S. household).
• The 1999 average annual percentage rate on all bank credit cards was 17.11 percent.
A quick check of the calculator shows that the folks carrying a balance are paying average annual interest close to $1,300.
It's not hard to see why credit card companies want our business. Nor is it hard to see why this caller just wanted the offers to stop.
Getting off lists
Calling the number on the back of the offer — as she did — will get you off that list. Unfortunately, there are many other lists floating around.
Calling or writing each of these (with your name, address and phone number) will get you off others:
• (888) 5 OPT OUT (567-8688); or send your request to Options, Equifax Inc., P.O. Box 740123, Atlanta, GA 30374-0123.
• (800) 353-0809; or Experian Consumer Opt Out, 701 Experian Parkway, Allen, TX 75013;
• Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735;
• Telephone Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association,P.O. Box 9014, Farmingdale, NY 11735.
Some lists — like those maintained by individual businesses, charities, community or political groups — won't be affected at all. Those you'll have to contact individually.
It may take a few months to kick in, but your mailman may thank you in the end.
Amy Higgins writes about personal finance for the Enquirer. You can reach her at 768-8373; ahiggins@enquirer.com; or Your Money, The Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202.
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