JUNK MAIL PUBLICATION DM NEWS SAYS YOU LIKE UNSOLICITED CREDIT CARDS

Market research firm, Cardbeat, says 42 percent of U.S. consumers received their newest credit card from a pre-approved credit card offer, according to DM News. I don’t doubt the statement, since the credit card companies mail millions of these offers each year. Our household currently receives around five of these mailings weekly, and I don’t believe the majority of the American public “likes” this unsolicited potential time-bomb. It is all an ID thief needs to steal your identity, and start a process that could cause you years of grief. When Googling “unsolicited credit cards,” you get almost 2 million hits, and after scanning ten of the pages, all I saw was negative content. One of the sites, ConsumerAffairs.com, lists 11 pages of complaints dating back to2001, all against one company, Consumer Credit Services/First National Credit Card. A Washington Post article by Annys Shin comments on how she is “stunned by how many companies have contacted a credit bureau seeking information about (her).” And then the Ripoff Report also covers the Consumer Credit Services/First National Card about the company’s deceptive tactics, and includes a lawsuit filed against the company and its president, Eric A. Petersen. The DM News piece also mentions that British consumers use the pre-approved method for applying for their credit cards in percentages that are considerably less than the U.S. They prefer “take one” applications at teller counters. That’s probably due to the fact that citizens in the UK are more aware due to more stringent data protection laws there than we have in this country. You can thank your Congressional representatives for that.