I wish you could opt-out of mail delivery

Aside from the odd magazine here or there I don't get anything but garbage in the mail. Every day I take the contents of the mailbox, walk down the driveway, and deposit most everything from it in the dumpster without even looking at it. I know what everything will be. Chinese/pizza menus, reach magazine, coupon books, bills, credit card/cable/satellite offers, etc...

I wish I could switch to once a month mail delivery. Maybe they could sort it as well. You'd have three magazines, a half dozen bills, and a pallet of crap they can take straight to the dump.

I pay all my bills online and I'd be more than willing to go to the store to pick up magazines if they'd match the subscription price. I really don't need a mailbox for anything. Some of the stuff I pay monthly even has an option for paperless delivery, but until they give a discount for using it they're gonna pay for the paper and postage every month even though I never open or look at the paper statements.

Sadly the truth of it is that the junkmail is probably all thats keeping the USPS afloat. If junkmail was cut think of how little legit mail would be left. Not enough revenue to keep the system afloat methinks.

Knock , knock

Postal Worker : Seinfeld ?

Jerry : Yeah .

Postal Worker : I got a package for you . Sign here .

Jerry : Who's it from ?

Postal Worker : No return address .

Jerry : What if I don't want it ?

Postal Worker : Are you refusing delivery ?

Jerry : Maybe I am .

Postal Worker : Why would you do that ?

Jerry : I've never done it before .

Postal Worker : Why start now ?

Jerry : Why not ?

Postal Worker : All right .

Postal Worker walks away with package.

You can effectively get monthly mail delivery with (in)appropriate use of a vacation hold.

Newman!

Just take down your mailbox. They'll send you a notice (that can't be delivered cause you don't have a mailbox) saying they won't deliver your mail till you put up a new box.

Then go down once a month to pick up your mail. It won't lessen the amount of junk mail tho.

ya on the junk mail...... but there are a lot of packages that are delivered by USPS.... usually in better shape than those delivered by UPS or FedEx...

PO Box, then dump it all in their trash can before you leave

I've always wanted a mail box big enough to put a paper shredder in. When they drop something in the slot - shredded! I'd like to see the postman or postwoman's face when they hear that buzzy paper-shredder sound every time they drop something through the slot. Might create havoc with those free shampoo samples though.

skruffy wrote: deposit most everything from it in the dumpster without even looking at it... credit card/cable/satellite offers, etc...

That's a good way to get yourself some credit card fraud.

Ask me how I know.

Shred those "you're pre-approved" things before you throw them out. Some jacktard opened a Capital-One card in my name that way after a pre-approval was sent to an aprtment I no-longer lived in.

It's a pain in the ass to deal with.

Shawn

aussiesmg wrote: PO Box, then dump it all in their trash can before you leave

And you're the reason my post office has removed all their garbage cans from the lobby. Thanks!

Shawn

Trans_Maro wrote:

aussiesmg wrote: PO Box, then dump it all in their trash can before you leave

And you're the reason my post office has removed all their garbage cans from the lobby. Thanks! Shawn

u r so very welcome

YOU CAN MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

http://optoutprescreen.com

That there is the official Guberment site for stopping unsolicited junk mail, pre-approved credit cards, and companies from looking at your credit report. They do an electronic opt out and a lifetime (by name & address, so you have to re-do it if/when you move).

I teach this kind of stuff at work. I did it myself about 6 months ago and my box is empty most days. If I didn't subscribe to so many magazines I'd get mail once a week.

You're welcome.

PS - If you hate coupons you can go to ValuPak and the other one's websites to opt out of those as well.

Ultra cool on the opt out info.
Before I do this are there any known negative side effects that you know of?
Could this hurt my credit rating? (I suspect that it actually might help it.)

Do you recommend the lifetime version? Is that too permanent?

Does not have side effects. It just stops almost all of the crap mail and 100% of the pre-approved offers. It even vastly limits the amount of insurance offer crap.

The type of "hit" on your credit report that is allowed without your permission does not affect your score in any way, so no, this won't "help" it. However, it will make it vastly harder for somebody to berkley your credit up since they can't steal the offer and mail it in (happens all the time).

The lifetime is name + address, so if you move it "undoes" anyways. Spring for lifetime.

If you would like to check your credit report to see just how many times these wackos "hit" it, use the government site: annualcreditreport.com . You get one free report every 12 months from each reporter (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) by Federal law. I recommend to my clients that they run 1 every 4 months, and yes, I do the same. If you are the victim of fraud you are entitled to a free round to ensure you got the fraud taken care of.

If anybody has questions, call me at work 8-5 M-F @ 360-425-3430 x218 and I'd be happy to help. I get paid to do this stuff every day.

Too cool. Done for myself and wife.
Have you used or do you have any thoughts on this direct mail option?
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt063.shtm

Haven't heard of the DM option there. I recommend contacting the companies who do mail you directly, they have to have an "opt out" option by law. ValuPak was easy to drop (the little blue envelopes of crap).

I agree on the watch out just throwing away the pre-approved credit offers. I saw a news special where they mailed in one that had been torn to pieces and taped back together before they filled it out... APPROVED! Now I shred all that stuff. It's just not worth the risk.

bought a shredder a couple of yas ago, incoming junk mail slowed as if it knew it's fate...weird. I'll check out the opt-out service, sounds good to me. The USPS is important and should be maintained, but with less junk mail to haul around and 5 day instead of 6 day delivery, maybe they could scale down to survive. The job loses would suck though.

I'd be all over monthly mail delivery. Sign me the hell up.

The customer service and the upkeep of the facility at my local PO are both so horrendously bad that I can't stand going there. If they were a 'regular' business, they would be out of business in a heartbeat. I don't know what the answer is, but curing the employees of their bureaucratic entitlement mentality would be a great first step.

40% of all mail is junk mail, and that number is rising rapidly as more people switch to online billing. Without junk mail, the entire postal service would collapse.

Skruffy, how do you exist on 3 magazines a month ?

Clay wrote: I agree on the watch out just throwing away the pre-approved credit offers. I saw a news special where they mailed in one that had been torn to pieces and taped back together before they filled it out... APPROVED! Now I shred all that stuff. It's just not worth the risk.

I've seen that too, and that really freaks me out. It's hard to shred everything though, the volume is so high...

The other thing I hate are "convenience checks" credit card companies mail to you. I called my CC and tried to opt out of those. It worked for a while, but they started comming again after a couple years.

Kramer and the Post Master General (played adroitly by Wilford Brimley)

Postmaster General: "Oh, my goodness. What have they done to you here?"

Kramer: "Huh? Who are you?"

Postmaster General: "Well, you can just call me Henry."

Kramer: "Henry Atkins? The postmaster general?"

Postmaster General: "Last time I checked."

Kramer: "Henry... can I get out of here now?"

Postmaster General: "Oh, oh. Sit a bit. Sit a bit. I mean, after all, I drove all the way up here from D.C. just to talk to you."

Kramer: "Oh?"

Postmaster General: "I even had to cancel a round of golf with the secretary of state. Do you like golf, Mr. Kramer?"

Kramer: "Yeah."

Postmaster General: "Kramer, I've been, uh, reading some of your material here. I gotta be honest with you: you make a pretty strong case. I mean, just imagine. An army of men in wool pants running through the neighborhood handing out pottery catalogs, door to door."

Kramer: "Yeah! Ha ha."

Postmaster General: "Well, it's my job. And I'm pretty damn serious about it. In addition to being a postmaster, I'm a general. And we both know, it's the job of a general to, by God, get things done. So maybe you can understand why I get a little irritated when someone calls me away from my golf."

Kramer: "I'm very, very sorry."

Postmaster General: "Sure, you're sorry. I think we got a stack of mail out at the desk that belongs to you. Now, you want that mail, don't you Mr. Kramer?"

Kramer: "Sure do!"

Postmaster General, receiving a salute from Kramer: "Now, that's better."

Kramer, seeing Newman walk into the office with a bucket on his head, escorted by a security man: "Geez. Newman?"

Newman, whimpering: "Tell the world my story."