When the “important” forms and letters actually arrive, the chances are much greater that they will be trashed, since the snail junkers have rendered terms like “Do Not Discard” utterly irrelevant. I have no time to open every single one. I destroy them on sight.

We only have to wait for a legal issue to come up where someone can claim ignorance based on not having been able to distinguish the important mailings from the junk. Unless it’s happened already…

I concur: Any business comfortable enough to take me for a fool will not see the color of my money, either.

Corporate America: Wise up. We’re not stupid and we will take you to task.

You’d think the companies would eventually realize the effect that such policies have on employee retention?

When I called to get that info they said “don’t worry about it, it’s free for now.”

Fortunately I pressed the issue to find out that I was already down $120 without ever having agreed to open the account (application does not equal agreement, especially with no terms disclosed).

In order to shut me up they kindly cancelled all the fees, at which time I thanked them, closed the account, and informed them that I was going to make sure everyone who would listen knew that they were predatory lenders.

At least I gave them what they never gave me – a fair warning!

I am getting mail from “domain registar of canada”. They make it look like my domain is in danger of expiration. The envelopes appear as they are from some Canadian Authority. And then inside they have an “easy form” for domain transfer. Only that they are 4 times more expensive than anywhere else.

However, at my place of employment I signed up for a store credit card so I could get a free pumpkin pie. As part of the application, I had to list my annual income. Which I did. A few weeks later I found out I had been declined because I don’t make enough. How could I, my only job is working at your store?

Oh well.. the pie was good at least.

Just today I visited FTC Consumer Alert – Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and Email: Where to Go To “Just Say No”.

I opted out of DMA mailing lists (by printing forms I have to mail in) at http://www.the-dma.org/consumers/offmailinglist.html

I also called the number to opt-out (permanently!!) from pre-approved credit card offers. The robot that answered led me to optoutprescreen.com, “the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry Opt-Out Prescreen website”, which was more convenient to use than the phone — but isn’t listed on the ftc.gov site.

Now, why do I have to do this??? There’s not enough time in the day to opt out of every thing in life there is to opt out of. This craziness has got to end. It exposes me to fraud, and it’s just plain messed up!

It will take a couple of months for the offers to stop arriving in the mail but it is worth calling the number.

Then there’s the phrase “Please do not discard,” which seems to appear only on junk mail.

As far as I’m concerned, credit cards are like e-mail attachments. If I’m not expecting it, it gets blackholed.

BTW, clever gateway question.

Personally, I’d rather get an envelope with a fake image like the above than one of those annoying fake credit cards that require more time to cut up since I can’t just run the whole thing through the shredder.

Here’s a tip if you don’t want to receive credit card offers at all: Call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT to notify the major credit bureaus to remove you from their mailing lists. (More detailed info is available in this kuro5hin article.)

I still get a weekly offer for a Bank One credit card. Apparently they are not co-ordinated enough to realise I already have the exact card they are offering.

Personally, I think this type of practice is misleading and potentially harmful, given the right circumstances, and should be banned.