More often than not, the government does some really screwy stuff which makes no sense to me and you. Usually I’m very vocal about my opposition to new federal laws and mandates telling us what we should and should not do. However a few years ago the federal government did something that actually protected consumers, and you should definitely make use of it. It’s called the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and it’s enacted federal law.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act does a number of things to empower consumers. You now have some legal force to assist you in correcting mistakes on your credit report, as well as having the right to see your credit report for free. The three major credit bureaus weren’t too happy about it, but it really helped consumers take more control of something that was quite distant to them before.
One really great thing Congress did with the Fair Credit Reporting Act was giving consumers the right to opt out of pre-screened credit offers. Let’s take a look at the implications. Chances are that you have gotten an offer for a credit card or insurance policy at one time or another telling that you have been pre-approved and they are just ready to give you some great offer because you are you! These companies who made you the offer did a quick pull of your credit report to determine if you were credit worthy enough to receive the offer. They saw that your credit was pretty good, and then sent you the offer telling you were pre-approved after that.
EW56Bhttp://bp0.blogger.com/_RDMuAibhQaM/RbofK93VQCI/AAAAAAAAALU/UQl6zYqf8yE/s1600-h/exp.gifWH6PDZ6EFPI don’t get a lot of these pre-screen letters, because I have a credit score of zero and recently opted out, but my room-mate who has a couple of credit cards and a cell-phone plan easily receives 10 credit card offers a week! He throws each and every one of them away. That’s a lot of junk mail. If one of those credit card offers got into the wrong hands, someone could easily open an account in his name, and he would be a victim of identity theft. That would be one bad situation.
There is a way where you can opt-out of pre-screened credit and insurance offers. I would recommend that everyone does this, because you will get a lot less junk mail, and there will be much fewer opportunities to steal your identity. It only takes a couple of minutes, and all you have to do is head on over to OptOutPreScreen.com