Oh my gracious goodness, this time of year you can really get bombarded with catalogs. Many years ago, when I was mailing something, the clerk at the post office said to me, “oh you are the lady with all the catalogs”. I knew then I had a serious problem.  See, you order something from a catalog, and those people share your name with everyone else so that they can get you to buy from them. Here’s a great site to opt out of all those pesky catalogs and save a tree while you are at it:  catalogchoice.org.

You can also opt out of all credit card offers. Does it make you nervous when you get these offers in the mail with all your information on it? Someone could just fill it out with a different address and get that pre-approved credit card in your name. Go to optoutprescreen.com, and you can opt out of receiving those offers electronically, or permanently by filling out the form and mailing it in.

Finally, a few years ago federal law allowed the consumer to opt out of allowing any creditor sharing your personal information with others. I sent out this letter below to all of my creditors at the time. As I continue to get new creditors, car loans, new mortgage, etc., I immediately shoot off another letter. I don’t want anyone thinking they can share my personal information with someone. They get something out of it. You don’t.

Dear Sir or Madam:

It is our understanding that federal law allows you to disseminate our personal information with third parties. We wish to opt out of any disclosures of our personal information. Please do not share any personal information about us to any third parties, or any affiliates of your company. Please remove our names from your mailing lists used for promotional offers, and remove our names from your telemarketing lists used for promotional offers.

If you didn’t already know this about me, I’m big on security and privacy.