Tip: Get off the junk mail lists

From someone who spent a significant portion of his career sending junk mail, here are a couple of tips.

You can have your name blocked from "pre-screened" credit card offers by calling 1-888-5-OPT-OUT or visit the Opt Out website here. Note, this doesn't mean you won't get any credit card offers, but it should cut the volume dramatically. That's because it's much more cost-effective for credit card companies to send mail to people who've been pre-screened. For one thing, it means they aren't wasting time and resources sending mail to a list where ~40% of applicants might get rejected for the card they are peddling. For another, pre-screened offers typically have higher response rates overall. So you might still get a handful of offers, but they'll be a general "invitation to apply", not a pre-approved offer, and the volume should be a fraction of what you'd otherwise receive.

NOTE: The day I found out that I was being laid off from a credit card company, Opt Out was one of the first things I did. Until that point, as an industry "insider", I wanted to get as many offers as I could to see what the competition was up to.

Tip number two: 41pounds.org. They are a non-profit, and they take their name from the amount of junk mail that an average American receives in a year. For $41, they'll get - and keep, for five years - your name and address off the mail lists for

...most common junk mail such as credit card offers, coupon mailers, sweepstakes entries, magazine offers and insurance promotions, as well as any catalogs you specify.

 It's not free, but for less than $10 a year, you can save yourself some hassles, save some trees, and honestly, save some direct mail companies the wasted expense of mailing you stuff that's going straight into your recycle bin anyway.

PS - if there's anyone left who hasn't signed up for the Do Not Call list, do that too!