I need to share a story that doesn’t have a happy ending yet.
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I’m glad ZDNet does this, it’s good practice. It let me know that I was signed up for newsletters that I didn’t sign up for. I did what you’d expect, I clicked the link to change my newsletter preferences…
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A little while back we were receiving at least 10 pieces of junk mail (unsolicited US postal mail) and 1-2 telemarketing calls per day. I found three things you can do to significantly change this. I’ve shared these instructions to family and friends, but figured it was time to share on the blog.
I know of three free things you can do to help cut down on this junk in the US:
Opt out of junk mail and credit card offers
The Direct Marketing Association’s “How to Get Off a Mailing List” page has information for getting off mailing lists as well as opting out of credit card offers. (It looks like the mail preference service now has a $1 fee for both online and mail-in — the mail-in used to be free.)
You’ll want to submit your information and $1 fee to opt out of mailings. They say it takes 30-90 days to see results, but we saw changes in just under 30 days.
On this page you’ll also see information on opting out of credit card offers. If you only want to opt out of credit card offers, you can go directly to OptOutPrescreen.com.
Stop the telemarketing calls
Registering your phone numbers with the National Do Not Call Registry should stop most telemarketing calls. Though it doesn’t apply to charities, political organizations, or phone surveys. In our case it has significantly reduced the number of unsolicited calls we receive. For the few calls we get from groups not covered by the registry, most have been respectful of our wishes when we have asked them to remove our name from their lists and not call again.
Hopefully these steps will help you cut down on the junk and interruptions like it has for us. If you know of any other tips/tricks we can use, please let me know.
-k