When it rains, it pours. And we're obviously not talking about precipitation here in Los Angeles (rain, where art thou?). No, no...we're referring to the deluge of junk mail we've been receiving in the last few weeks leading to the holiday shopping season. Many of us want to take back our mailboxes, but you'll have to jump through some hoops to make it happen. Below the jump are a few ways to reduce the piles of junk mail clogging your mail slots and boxes...
Getting off of national mailing lists: The Mail Preference Service (MPS) of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is a free service provided by the DMA to assist consumers in reducing the amount of unsolicited national advertising mail they receive at home. In your letter, request your name and address be deleted from all mailing and marketing lists. Provide them with all possible ways of spelling your name, as well as the names of anyone else at your address who does not want to receive junk mail. Be sure to sign and date your letter. MPS will retain your information in their database for five years and will mail this information to business subscribers four times a year. Send your letter to:
Mail Preference Service / DMA
ATTN: Dept. 9407644
P.O. Box 643
Carmel, NY 10512
Tel. No.: 212-768-7277
How to reduce coupons, ads and product samples: To reduce or stop receiving coupons, ads and/or product samples in your mail, you will need to contact the companies distributing these materials to your residence. You can write or call these companies and request that your name and address be removed from their company's mailing lists. One such company mailing these materials is:
Advo Incorporated
Consumer Assistance Dept.
P.O. Box 249
Windsor CT, 06095
Tel. No.: (888) 241-6760
It's also recommended you contact list brokers, those information scavenging businesses that specialize in selling your address to advertisers. Three of the major list brokers are:
R.L. Polk & Company
Attn: Opt-Out Coordinator
26955 Northwestern Highway
Southfield, MI 48034
Tel. No.: 800-464-7655
Donnelly Marketing, Inc.
Data Base Operations
416 South Bell
Ames, IA 50010
Tel. No.: 888-633-4402
Acxiom Corporation
1 Information Way
Little Rock, AR 72202
Tel. No.: 501-342-2722
And to stay off as many of these mailing lists, you'll have to avoid any contact with companies that do not guarantee that they'll sell your information to a third party (and even then, we're not sure if this is any insurance it won't happen). Warranty cards, surveys, contests and even phone calls to companies can result in having your information added to a database of some sort. It's practically a losing battle in many ways, but we'd rather make the effort to have even a little less unsolicited junk mail, because it all adds up.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
This is so timely! I just got back from a trip and 75% of our mail was junk. It's time I take back my mailbox!
view theblt's profile
I signed up for http://greendimes.com a few months back, and aside from store catalogs ( you have to call and cancel) and pennysavers, it's been working.
You can submit serveral names. I included ours as well as the names of the former owners who were still getting tons of junk mail.
view emilyn's profile
I moved in October so the junk mail hasn't found me yet. I wonder how long this will go on..
view Laura's profile
http://www.catalogchoice.org/
A free service that will stop specific catalogs from being sent to you.
Tell them which ones you don't want and they take care of the rest.
Consider this my holiday gift to AT readers!!
view felix's profile
I joined greendimes in october and my understanding besides contacting companies to keep you off the mailing lists, you can put in catalogs. I have over 50 at current count between two adults and previous owners. It's astounding to think you get over 50 catalogs you don't want. I hope I understand the site because I stopped calling them once i joined them.
I was also told by one of the customer service people from a catalog i had called repeatedly, that every time you order from them it generates a fresh catalog, which I didn't know.
If you order on the phone tell them not to send a catalog from that purchase.
view stacey's profile