This sounds too easy, but call the 800 number requesting that you no longer receive credit card offers. I used to get about 5 day. They made me see red too. But, marvelously, about a week after I made the call, all solicitations for credit have stopped. It boggles my mind how much money credit card companies spend on duplicate mailings. I no longer believe in credit cards. I have my AMAZON VISA that earns points when I buy books and I am happy. The rest can GO TO HELL! That’s where they will wind up anyway after defrauding millions and millions of Americans.

Make the call.

Try http://www.optoutprescreen.com

You are an idiot. Stop being so dramatic and take some medication.

so, what you/we need to do is send the blank envelope back to the folks. then they must waste postage and resources. i have been doing it for years…an army of one, thats me.
regards.

Bing……Dont know if you were trying to be funny or just plain stupid. Everybody in the USA even Me(who imigrated just 3yrs ago) knows that Chase gets your mailing address from the credit bearaus once a month and they send out the solicitation irrespective of whether u are already a customer or not. Chase will never know that they already sent you a solicitation previously. So you best bet. open one of the mailings that you get and read it. It will tell you a way to get out of that mailing list. Trust me it works. I did it.

Open the next one and look for the OPT OUT reference in the solicitation. By law, all consumer finance companies have to include an OPT OUT clause. There should be a link as well a toll free number. You should never see another solicitation from Chase again.

guys, i’m trying to get even with these people by using their “no postage due” envelope to mail them some of the other enticements I receive (not giving my name). I think if enough of us do this, they may someday quit, but each time i do this, i gain a little satisfaction.

Chase! Gaahhhhh! I rue the day that my first ever credit card account, which began at Citibank and moved over to First USA which then became Bank One, finally merged its way into the lap of Chase. Woe is me! Solicitations abound! And I won’t even get into the fact that a great local institution, the 99 cent store a block away from my apartment, is now being converted into an evil Chase branch! The banking Gods are frowning down upon me. Begone, Chase!

When I get tons of envelopes from credit card companies and other companies I like to send back the empty envelopes after marking out any incriminating information. They pay the postage! If any company is interested in letting you what products and services they offer, return the favor. Those postage free cards about new siding,insurance and other products may be of interest to them. Your just being friendly and returning the favor. If your mail has been “personalized” by the vice president of the company or someone with their name on the form, please let them know of the offers that they may not be aware of. This also helps generate income for the United States Postal service too.

I used to get 5 to 10 Capital One
applications a week. Finally I
collect about 25 applications.
Filled them out with all sorts of
funny things, like income one
million dollars a year. Age 12.
Etc.
And mailed them back to Capital One
The only comment I got back was they were unable to verify my
SS number, which read 111 11 1111.
Fun thing was they stopped sending
me applications! Go figure.

Don is right. I use the same thing for telemarketers. If you say “Take me off your list” they push a magic button and that company never calls you anymore. After about 2 weeks I didn’t receive any more telemarketing calls. I also don’t have an answering machine on my home phone number, as anyone who wants to get my attention will call my cell. This also makes most companies give up after 2 or 3 calls.

Forget the Do-Not-Call registries… There’s so many loopholes it doesn’t do anything. Just say the magic words and you’ll be surprised how quickly those spineless little asshats go away.

I feel your pain. Washington Mutual is another one of that ilk. And though it is juvenile, in the depths of my soul I find a tiny bit of glee when I decided to use their return envelopes to return their trash to them. As I said, and truly know, juvenile. But, the reality is that once you have recognized the piece of mail for what it is, you can rip out anything you don’t want to send back and stuff the return envelope, seal it, put it with the rest of the outgoing mail, and have everything tidy again in less than one minute.

Revenge can be bliss. Even tiny revenge. And if you are not an account holder at all already, then you can only hope that if a hudred thousand people or so do the same thing that pretty soon the cost will become “real money” and one of two things should happen; 1) Fees are raised to cover “costs” and perhaps driving good customers elsewhere (loss of business is good!), or 2) someone (a bean counter somewhere in the bowels) will see the aggregate cost of these “returns” and say “you know, maybe it would be cheaper to weed out the people who really don’t want to hear from us!” (another good and preferable result).

One other tact that worked very successfully with another much smaller company that would cold call, was to find a phone number that got into their inner offices (and you can find them, it just takes some detective work) and start calling randomly trying to sell them the stuff I need to get rid of. I finally got the manager’s phone number and left a lengthy message about how I would dsrupt his workforce with MY calls, and miraculously my phone number was removed from their sales system. Ahhh, bliss. I know, trite, but satisfying.

Meh. I don’t get mad — I try to drive competition. I will very dutifully open each solicitation, then I will helpfully repackage the offers in the pre-paid envelopes so as to ensure that Citi knows what Discover is offering, and Providian is aware of the awesome deal that Fleet is sending, etc, etc. In the rare event that I don’t have enough solicitations, I like to send coupons, donation solicitations — really, whatever odds and ends will fit into an envelope.

Is it the mature thing to do? Nope. Is it childish? You bet. Is it satisfying? Oh yeah!

My aunt has a trust account with Chase and her deposit accounts. She is on the same mailing list that you are and is receiving the same mailings including the checks (which are designed to trick people, primarily the elderly). Her trust reps have lamented their inability to get the mailings shut off for her.

I called the 800 number, but they wanted my SSN to opt out. They did not need this SSN to begin sending me unsolicited offers, why do they need it to stop? My solution is to just mail back the empty postage-paid envelopes and shred the applications. So far this year I have mailed back 52 empties.

Trying using cash for all transactions. I enjoy my credit card cash back and rewards. If you can’t afford to buy something, DON’T. Credit cards don’t give you a license to spend more than you earn. If you are not financially responsible enough to have a card, DON’T. Those who pay their bills enjoy the full benefit of credit card reward programs at the expense of the irresponsible. Remember there is no interest charge if you pay within the grace period. The money and convenience the bank affords me is being paid by those who can’t seem to understand the concept of personal fiscal responsibility.
Thanks

I setup a PO Box for most of my mail. Once the PO Box starts to get too much junk, I switch to a new post office. It take them about 5 years to find you all over again. You can also opt out by writing the 3 credit agencies, which works fairly well.

Obviously, credit card companies are making a fortune on these high rate cards. My best advice is to avoid them at all cost, because if you don’t it will cost you a fortune.

If you don’t get any mail of value there, why not have all the mail forwarded to Chase?

i have the same problem. Chase likes cutting down trees….someone invent the junk mail garage heater please.

I tried that 800 number, so far Chase doesn’t seem to care…its worth a shot though

All you have to do is open one of the mailings and call the toll free number in the fine print or log onto the web site in the fine print to opt out of all future mailings. By doing so I cut my mail volume in half.

Sooner or later – ideally sooner – banks will be shorn of their ability to engage in predatory credit card practices.

Among them:

The rolling payment due date. Not sure what cycle is used for this, but it appears random – random enough that late payment fees are legion. Bank of America argues I should sign up for autopay to deal with this friggery.

The unremitting credit card check scam. As in, use check # aabb and you get a teaser rate. Screw up and use check # bbaa and you owe your arm, leg, first born child, and the virginity of your second daughter.

Predatory lending practices. 30% anyone? Oh, and by the way, the FEES cover the banks entire cost of business, including rental on the money. Credit card dollars are of course supporting the entire financial system.

Bate and switch. All the frigging time. Lying thieves.

Instant payments via the Internet – that aren’t. These clear overnight of course – so why does Bank of America post after THREE BUSINESS days? To garner a rapid-response frig you fee, of course.

Latest adverts on TV: the idea of making one feel quilty for using cash (the MasterCard and Visa adds)…yep, use cash, clog the system! Mothermuckers!

I am not impressed. Time for congressional action.

Chrysler’s love slave?

Ew.

Great Stuff! I’ve been reading Bing on and off for years, and always get a chuckle.
Not only Chase, but B of A, Citi, AMEX – they’re all guilty of killing trees to send offers I don’t want.

The opt out phone number and web address will work for new credit card solicitations, but not for companies that already have you in their system from a past association. I still get occasional solicitations from CitiBank for exactly that reason. When I receive the undesired solicitation, I write on the appliation, in bold black Sharpie, “Please remove my name from your mailing list. Thanks.” Then I use the prepaid return envelope to send it to them. This may not be the most effective solution, but I find it more satisfying than just shredding the “offer”.

I took it a step further Bing. I’ve seen the shiny buildings these banks own in NYC. Banks debt-ridden Americans helped finance.
I’m 34 yrs old and I have been Credit free, thus debt free for 3 years. If my parents generation (and every one before that)could live by only what they could afford, and worked without instant gratification- then it seems that I can do the same. It is as hard as living without a cell-phone. (electronic ball and chain) its hardest for two weeks but then you hardly miss it. I’m Cash (and debit card) and Carry- Judge me if you want, – because I dont pay interest to anyone.

I recommend taking any offensive solicitation, removing your name and other identifying information, tearing it to shreds, putting the shreds into the postage paid envelope, and sending it on its way to whence it came. Someone once told me the bar code gives the sender enough information to realize every time they send something to a particular address, it comes back in the aforementioned shredded state and they pay the postage. Thereafter, the unwanted soliciations slow down; sometimes they cease altogether. I do not know if this is true but it is fun.

What I do with advertisements, restuff their junk in their return envelopes….make the post office some money and let them get it back at them.

Also note, these companies that actually *do* take your name off the list, only take that exact name off. So if you request that no more mailings be addressed to “Stanley Bing”, they enter that into their system. What their system doesn’t catch is… “Stan Bing” “Stanly Bing” “Stanley A. Bing” Ms. Stanley Bing” etc., etc. Which means you have to opt-out for every possible arragement and spelling of your name, making it deceptively difficult to opt out entirely.

ps. good luck getting the person on the other end of the line to do this, too. They’ll usually “yeah, yeah, yeah” you just to count another call and move on.

http://www.catalogchoice.org is a related site to unsubscribe from unwanted catalogs.

One other tip for you besides signing up with an opt out service. When signing up for mail forwarding with the United States Post Office (USPS), do not select the permanent option, instead, choose a 6 month temporary move.

The USPS sells these permanent move addresses to companies, including credit card companies. If you’d like to see mailing list magic, change your middle initial, or the spelling of your last name and watch what offers pop up with the altered information.

I have almost eliminated junk mail. I open the request and use the postage paid envelope to return the mail and scrawl “REMOVE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST” across the entire return card. This costs them money. I even return the form in the mail to the ones that are not postage paid with the same message. (No postage, and no return address on the outside.) Finally, even if there is no return envelop, I just scrawl “RETURN TO SENDER” across whatever has been sent.
There should be a national movement SSJM – Stop Sending Junk Mail.

PS. I also include the flyers that come with my bills in with my check when I pay the bill. If they have to throw the stuff away, maybe they will stop sending it.

I had the same problem with Chase. They sent me 2 or 3 offers daily. I called to have them stop the mailings, but they said it would take 3 months to remove my name from the system. I finally filed a complaint with the MI Attorney General and amazingly, Chase stopped sending me the offers.

FYI Don: Your precious Amazon card is managed by Chase.

Just thought you’d like to know

I read somewhere about a guy who sent back the pre-paid envelopes with nothing in them, forcing the old bank to pay the postage. Then he started adding bits of metal to the envelopes to increase the weight and postage. The metal may not be a good idea anymore, but there’s no reason these things should only be a burden on you.

Capitol One and I used to have the same relationship. I decided to use Flat Rate – Priority mail boxes and their “Postage paid” envelopes affixed to the box, so that they could know: at $8.85 a pop that I was not interested in their cards. After about three months and 29 return envelopes, Capitol One decided I cost too much to hassle.

Another option, which I take some pleasure in, is to send all those solicitations back with the word “Declined” scrawled over them. If you notice that “Business Reply Mail: return postage guaranteed” message where a stamp would go, you have the opportunity not to make the solicitations stop but to actively take your revenge $0.15 (or whatever the bulk mail rate for these things is) at a time.

Petty? Yes. Satisfying? sometimes. Worth it? Up to you, how much do you value your time vs. the satisfaction

Why not act on your rage in a way that will affect the cause? Like, for instance, instead of shredding and tossing the offending junk mail, write “Stop Sending Junk Mail” in big, bold letters on the solicitation and mailing it back to them in the postage-paid envelope. Makes them pay for their intrusion on your peace. This won’t hurt them much per mailing, but if we all do it, then they will stop or go broke on mailing costs. Sure, it takes a few seconds out of your day, but isn’t constructive resistance better than impotent rage?

Good Old Chase! About ten years ago, when my credit card was about to expire, I received twenty-five (yes–25!) identical envelopes from Chase in the mail. Each envelope contained four (yes, 4!) credit cards. What a hoot….

PS. They closed my old account and opened a new one for me–24 hours before I left on an European trip.

I get one Chase credit card offer per week, every week. I will definitely call that 800#. They are not only inconveniencing and annoying me greatly….the environmental cost of all that paper is disgusting. Truly disgusting.

Stop the rambling!

Thank you all for your intelligent and passionate comments today! And then there’s Chuck from Dallas, TX, who says, “You are an idiot. Stop being so dramatic and take some medication.” Thanks, Chuck. And the truth is, I would actually rather be dramatic and idiotic than take medication. Unless it’s a translucent golden liquid that comes in a bottle from Scotland. That’s my medication of choice. The only problem with it is that it doesn’t erase my idiocy. It enhances it. Anyway, thanks again, guys. Just FYI? I got a call from Chase a few minutes ago and they’re taking my name off their lists. That, my friends, is the power of the blogosphere.

I just mail back empty pre-paid reply envelopes…

Hmmmm. Seems to me that mailing a few Sears catalogues to Chase – using their envelope, of course (tape works wonders) might engender some sort of comment.

Think I’ll give it a try. Thought about sending – ala Richard Feynman – Pepto Bismol powder, but that might be taken with a dim view these days.

I had a similar situation with another organization several years ago. They were sending me large full color pamphlets and other marketing info that I know, having done some advertising myself, costs a fortune. I figured, with the amount of material they were sending me, it had to amount to a few hundred dollars they had spent on me and my husband over the years.
Finally, I rang them up and asked them to cease sending any more marketing material and instead send me a check, annually, for whatever it costs them to get me that ad (paper, administrative costs, postage, and salaries of their marketing staff or advertising agency fees).
Unfortunately, the $7/hr customer service people didn’t have the wherewithall to say more than, uhhhhhh…. So i’m stuck with the glossy, expensive garbage fillers. This strategy might really work, if they wanted me to switch, but then what would all of the poor saps graduating with marketing and business degrees do with their diplomas. Oh well.

Each of these endless mailings states that if I do not want these pre-screened offers I should call the OptOut 800 number. I have done that 10 years ago and renewed it every few years. It has stopped all but a few, Chase & American Express, mainly. Apparently they don’t intend to honor the OtpOut list, which tells me the quality of company they are.

Bill

Marketing offers and cockroaches will be with us forever. However, with the bank’s junk mail you can tear it up and then stuff it into the postage paid envelope that they are kind enough to include. Then mail it back to them at their expense. This gives some small satisfaction in knowing that they are paying a second mailing cost to receive your recycling, even if they still won’t take your name off of the mailing list. After all, it’s the thought that counts.

Like you I also have received hundreds of credit card offers from Chase – I now write “No thanks’ across them and use their pre-paid envelope to send it back to them.
When they really get up my nose I send them credit card offers from other companies as well – in fact as much useless mail as I can stuff into the pre paid envelope.

Wahhhh I got mail, woah is me… If you were as intelligent as you were trying to be with your witty novel about your mail, you could have opted out of recieving solicitations. But maybe I’m wrong, maybe for someone out there your story will be a beacon of hope for their situation in the realization that it could be worse. They were victims of crimes, natural disasters, loss of loved ones, but knowing that things can be worse as in your situation will be a comfort.

Double stick tape their literature to the inside of the envelope & mail it back to them at their expense.

When they make you mad enough, send something heavy in their pre=paid envelope, like a brick. They pay for the postage back and if it costs them 20 buxs so be it. If people want the junk mail to stop, hit them on their bottomline when it costs them 10 buxs in postage to send a response back.

Beautifully written, loved the story and I couldn’t agree more. Now the tellers are in cahootz (sp?) with the blue goons (the Chase new corporate shirt color) to sell you something. A teller will tell you there’s something wrong with your account and say you have to see a bank officer. You are escorted to a small room. The blue shirt has been trained to first offer a hand shake to gain his trust. At which point I said – is there a problem with my account or are you try to sell me something? Not prepared to respond instantly, the moment of silence gave me the chance to get up and leave. I have my six shooter loaded for the next time this happens. I can’t wait. This has turned into customer harrassment. Fight back.

I take all the crap from one credit card offer, and stuff it into another credit card offer’s prepaid envelope. And generally throw in some local restaurant coupons as well.

Just try to explain to their Indian customer service personnel with their barely understandable english that you are already a customer and no you don’t need to do another balance transfer because you already did one.

Just accept very card offer you can get your hands on. Charge them all up taking amazing vacations and buying all that cool stuff you don’t need, buy a house you can’t afford, and live large for a year or two. Then file for bankruptcy. This will cut your solicitations down at least in half. That seems to work for a lot of people in this country.

Just OPT-Out and dont worry about petty solicitaions. Chase is a great bank and they helped me with my children 529plan and my retirement plan as well.

Credit card companies are pretty much up there with PI attorneys, mortgage brokers and car dealerships.

They suck, plain y simple.

They mail that stuff because people respond. The numbers work.

Instant gratification just like most of our neigbors need. Cant afford it now but hey you can have it now. You may make 140K a year but you can live right now like you make 250K.

Oh, by the way your home equity is gone!!

Open the letter and get the name of the person that signed the offer and the return address. Then sign them up for all sorts of free catalogs, especially the sissy ones, if you know what I mean.

The gift that will keep on giving…indefinately.

Dude in Boise suggested filing bankruptcy as a way to cut down on credit card solicitations. A friend’s experience shows it doesn’t work that way. Last year, she filed her SECOND bankruptcy. After completion and discharge of much of her debt, it was less than two weeks until she started receiving credit card offers tailored to those who had recently been relieved of their debts. Unbelievable.

What’s the big deal? Are they too heavy to lift into the garbage can? Are they too difficult to open? I fail to understand the rage and frustration. I could see if they came in a 92 pound crate that you had to open every time, but if I’m not mistaken, and I’m not, they come in a very light, easy to handle envelope that fits into a recycle bin or garbage can very easily and no rage is needed. Here’s a really simple solution…first off, if this bothers you so much, you need to be institutionalized to get help from whatever psychotic conditon is making you so angry about getting a piece of paper in the mail. Now on to the solution…THROW THE DAMN THINGS AWAY!! How friggin hard it that? If this enrages you so, please, post on some website your daily driving whereabouts so I can avoid your psychotic episodes like the plague while you drive!

For those that send back their credit card offers in the pre-paid envelope hoping that the bank will notice, they won’t. I used to work in Application processing opening these offers. The people that get to see these are either temps or very low paid people. They sit at a machine that opens the envelopes or manually open them removing the returned items. If there’s junk in there they have to deal with it. It doesn’t get to anyone that has anything to deal with the sending of the offers. You are just making the job of the person opening the mail that much harder and more disgusting. I’ve seen jagged pieces of metal that someone could have cut themselves on. I’ve seen old coupons stuck in the envelope and even used cigarette butts. Once I even received a credit card offer from another bank. I could only assume they received the offer from the bank I was working for in their envelope.

Those that did send back the offer intact with their information, we did forward it on to get them taken off the list. The return envelopes don’t contain information on those it was sent to, so if you don’t provide your name and address we couldn’t take those people off the list. In addition using the automatic mail opener, you don’t even see the empty envelope as it gets stuck into a trash bin.

And if you think that abusing the return envelopes will cause them to stop sending you offers, don’t you think they’ll just stop using the pre-paid envelopes and make you use a stamp to apply?

Maybe I missed it, but no one seems to see the real danger of credit card companies sending us unsolicited offers for easy credit. If someone can get your SS number (not hard, really), they can remove these offers from your mailbox (very easy if they come to a second home, you don’t go to each day), mail them in and then watch for the cards to be delivered. They can then run the cards up to the limits and then just throw them away. You won’t detect this for at least several weeks and then only if you use a credit monitoring service.

I used to get annoyed at these persistent junk mailings but one day I looked at it from a different view point; many problems can also be opportunities.

From this angle, I realized junk mail is fuel delivered free to my house. Instead of getting annoyed at the senders, I say a silent thank you and just dump them all into my wood burning stove. Every BTU they supply for free is one that I don’t have to buy from regions of the world where at least part of the proceeds comes back to do us harm in one way or another.

Since the paper comes from trees which are a renewable resource, the use of junk mail as a source of home heating is at least sort of green technology. The hot combustion gases pass through a catalytic bed and burn with a clear blue flame, so the combustion is just about as clean as such things can be.

Right now I am trying to get on as many junk mailing lists as possible. My goal is to have these junk mail advertisers not only subsidize my home heating costs as they are now but to pay for it entirely. My old house was built during WWII and is not well insulated, so it takes a lot of fuel to heat it, about 130 million BTUs per year in this northern climate. I estimate it would take about 67 pounds of junk mail delivered every day to reach that goal. At this point I am well short of that goal, but it is something to shoot for.

Of course I would have to accumulate and store it during the summer months. Efforts to negotiate with the postal service to hold it during the summer and deliver it during the heating season have not been fruitful.

Now if I could just find a use for email spam.

I never post comments to articles, but I had to for this one. I get the same amount of relentless offers from Chase for their credit cards, and what infuriates me the most is that my husband and I each have one! We are already their credit card customers, yet they still won’t leave us alone. I am tempted to cancel both the cards and go with another company!!

I usually send back the credit card request all torn-up placed neatly inside the their self address stamped enevolpe. Along with some food scraps and items left over from my two pets.

Can you use the prepaid envelopes to send a letter to a friend if you tape your friend’s address over the CC company’s address?

WOW!!! My medication must be working….Could care less. shred em all.

That “annoying” institution happens to employ over 174,000 people with good jobs, provide millions of Americans with financial services, and handle more of our governments money than any other institution in the world. If the worst thing in your life is some junk mail, life has got to be good!

What I love is the occasional Credit card application addressed to my dog and cat. I have no idea how they made it on a mailing list but they did.

Can I hear an Amen! I have he same problem. Tough the transfers are 0% the cards are 19 to 29% which they used to call usary. Or Loan Sharking! The credit card industry passed a bill in, I think, 2002 raising the rates they could charge to 33%! Right after 9/11 Hmmm!

Fed up with the checks and credit card offers I wrote an email through there side and it seems that works. They said they will not send me further offers.

I have severely reduced the amount of credit offers I get because I have reduced my credit score to 177. Just charge a card up and refuse to pay. Trust me, it works.
—–
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In addition to the blizzard of Chase mailing, I had also received a couple of the $20 (they must be getting cheap if they only offered you 9 and change) contract checks. The bit that pissed me off was that the check was made out to me or ‘BEARER’. And just how were they going to get ‘BEARER’ to live up the the terms on the check, or were they just going to stick me with it. I was temped to pass on the check and let bearer cash it, but then again, I was not interested in cleaning up after the check was cashed.

This is just a random thought – I know Chase was one of the several banks tied up in the “Mirage formerly known as Enron.” Then again, what bank WASN’T involved in that corporate thievery?

Anywho, perhaps they were hit the hardest and, years later, have taken up a legal alternative to trying to screw money out of people.

That’s just my Enron conspiracy theory anyway.

I’ve started a local campaign since I get about one a day. Just send back the terms page (the one that doesn’t have any of your info) and write “I love you marry me.” and draw a heart.
We got about 100 people doing it so far.

All of my Chase offers come as Continental Airlines bonus mile care offers. I finally found the ‘opt out’ on Continental’s website. But the offers are still coming a year later. I get 7 every week! Yes, I could jus throw them out. But, I am an environmentalist who is against using non-recycled white paper and I feel it is an insult to me to have to deal with all these stupid mailings when I don’t want them. I recycle what can be recycled. But, what a pain in the neck. Most other companies have ceased their mailings to me at my request, but not these guys.

And God help us who actually have a Chase credit card! First, they canceled it without notice when Chase Home Finance mistakenly foreclosed on my property. They refuse to re-open it. They chose to stop taking automatic payments 2 months ago and now have penalized me for their decision by raising my interest rate to 30%. They have been calling me 8 to 12 times a day from a number that comes up as “Unavailable ID” every time. Half the time there is nobody there and the other half of the time they refuse to identify themselves or their organization before demanding your information.

I can’t get rid of this card fast enough.