You can take a few minutes to request less promotional mail, but no form stops every piece—or changes your mailbox in five minutes. For U.S. consumers, start with DMAchoice for certain prospect marketing mail, then use OptOutPrescreen separately for prescreened credit and insurance offers. Each service has limits, and mail already in the pipeline may keep arriving for weeks.
What you can do in about five minutes
The quickest practical approach is to submit preference requests, not buy a product. DMAchoice lets you select categories of catalogs, magazine offers, and other marketing mail. The FTC describes it as a way to stop most, but not all, promotional mail; DMAchoice says its suppression request applies to prospect mail from participating organizations with which you do not already have a business relationship.
- Reduce general promotional mail: Go to DMAchoice’s Consumer Choice Tools and choose the categories you want to receive or suppress. The FTC’s “How To Stop Junk Mail” guidance says online registration costs $6 and lasts 10 years; it lists postal registration at $7. These are terms stated by the FTC in 2022, so check the current service page before paying.
- Reduce prescreened credit and insurance offers: Use OptOutPrescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT. The FTC says the online or phone election lasts five years. To make it permanent, start the election online or by phone, then sign and return the form you receive.
The FTC’s instruction for choosing marketing categories is: “To decide what types of mail you do and don’t want from marketers, register at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) website DMAchoice.org and choose what catalogs, magazine offers, and other mail you want to get.”
What these services do—and do not—cover
| Type of mail | What to do | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Prospect catalogs, magazine offers, and other promotional mail | Choose categories through DMAchoice. | It covers participating marketers’ prospect mail, not every sender or every mailing. |
| Prescreened credit or insurance offers | Use OptOutPrescreen online or by phone; complete and return the signed form for a permanent election. | This is a separate opt-out from DMAchoice. |
| Mail from a business or organization you already use, or a group you donate to | Ask that company or organization to remove your address from its mailing list. | DMAchoice says existing customer and donor mail is outside its service. |
| Bills, statements, and notices | Contact the sender if you have a question about the mailing. | These are not the promotional prospect mail addressed by DMAchoice. |
| Political mail | Contact the sender if you want to ask about its list. | DMAchoice does not suppress it. |
| “Current resident” mail or Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) | You can ask your local post office about options. | DMAchoice says these pieces are outside its service; suppressing route-based mail can be difficult because it is delivered by area, not to a named recipient. |
DMAchoice’s FAQ explains these exclusions and says its request is sent to participating companies. Organizations that do not subscribe to the suppression list may still mail you.
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Why mail can keep arriving after you opt out
A registration is not an immediate mailbox switch. The FTC says OptOutPrescreen requests are processed within five days, but several weeks may pass before offers stop; companies may already have obtained your information. DMAchoice also notes that marketers can prepare mailings well in advance. The practical result is that a piece delivered shortly after registration may have been produced before your request took effect.
The five-minute claim is best understood as time spent submitting a request, not a promise that delivery stops in five minutes. The FTC’s current prescreened-offer guidance gives the processing and delivery-delay expectations.
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When a request does not solve the problem
- It is from a company you recognize: Contact the sender directly and ask to remove your postal address from its marketing list. DMAchoice does not cover mail tied to an existing customer or donor relationship.
- It is addressed to “current resident” or delivered to every home on a route: Those pieces are not handled by DMAchoice. You can ask the local post office about options, but route-wide delivery may be difficult to suppress.
- It is a bill, statement, notice, or political mailing: These are outside DMAchoice’s promotional-mail suppression service; contact the sender where appropriate.
- It is an unwanted email, text, or scam: Postal preference services do not address those channels. The FTC discusses separate steps in “Dealing with spam texts, emails, and junk mail.”
Do you need a product to stop junk mail?
No special physical product is needed to reduce incoming promotional mail. A shredder or organizer can help handle mail after it arrives, but neither changes a sender’s mailing list. The main actions are setting preferences with DMAchoice and OptOutPrescreen, then contacting senders whose existing relationship or delivery method falls outside those services.
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