Unwanted Offers Can Be Stopped With A Click

https://www.optoutprescreen.com

Al Sunshine
Reporting

(CBS4) ORLANDO If you're tired of all those banks, credit and insurance companies calling and mailing you offers, then go immediately to the website at www.optoutprescreen.
The website will allow you to "opt out", to stop from getting all those unwanted solicitations, and from your personal information from getting sold.
If that option feels too extreme, and you do get a call with an offer which seems enticing, verify who you are talking to, and above all, don't give your personal or financial information to anyone you aren't sure you can trust.
If you have a mortgage or have applied for one, we have a warning for you: your personal and financial information could now be in the hands of hundreds of strangers.
Mike and Beth Hayden of Orlando just wanted a loan to build their family's dream home. So they made some inquiries on new loans.
"That's when the phone just wouldn't stop," Beth said. They were getting loan solicitations from then on in, like at seven in the morning all the way through ten at night.
The calls didn’t stop companies selling mortgages, offering crazy offers.
Mike said, "We had one that approved us for $700,000 at one percentage rate".
What happened to the Haydens could easily happen to you. It's called a "trigger list", and it works like this: you apply for a mortgage, and the mortgage company checks your credit. So far, so good. But the credit bureau then sells your personal financial information to other lenders hungry for your mortgage business. And overnight, your phone starts ringing.
For the Haydens, it was one unwanted pitch after another. They even registered on a do-not-call list, and they have a private number. It didn’t help.
And in all of this, "trigger lists" are legal, regulated by the FTC.
Credit bureaus sell your information to make money, but insist you benefit, too. Stuart Pratt, president of The Consumer Data and Industry Association, said "Some will have better offers, some won't. I would make the best choice, and this is all about consumer choice at the end of the day."
But no one chooses to be badgered.
And with so many individuals getting access to their personal and financial information, the Haydens are concerned about identify theft.
But credit bureaus say they sell the lists only to credentialed lenders but critics say the practice is dangerous. One analyst said the real problem with this it's really open ended. They are just selling your information to anybody.
Families like the Haydens often don't know who is legitimate, and that being the case, they want to make one offer to them all: don't call us, we'll call you.

Source: cbs4.com - Unwanted Offers Can Be Stopped With A Click