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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesUse the official OptOutPrescreen.com service or call 1-888-567-8688 (1-888-5-OPT-OUT). You can request an electronic opt-out that lasts five years, or begin a permanent opt-out and then print, sign, and mail the required form. The service covers firm offers built from lists supplied by Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion, but it will not stop every type of marketing mail.
Why mortgage-related offers arrive around a home purchase
A recent mortgage application can trigger competing offers from other mortgage companies. The Federal Trade Commission describes these as prescreened or preapproved offers of credit. A lender or insurer sets eligibility criteria, and a credit-reporting company identifies consumers whose files appear to meet those criteria. Companies can then send a firm offer, subject to any conditions stated in the offer and to the consumer meeting the creditor’s requirements when applying.
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The trigger is generally the mortgage application, not proof that the closing itself automatically placed you on a marketing list. Offers may therefore appear while you are shopping for a loan, during underwriting, or after the purchase has closed, depending on when a company obtained a list and when it mailed its campaign. A closing can coincide with a new wave of mail simply because several campaigns were timed to people who recently sought a mortgage.
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Prescreening is different from a lender reviewing your report after you apply directly. The FTC says prescreening inquiries do not affect your credit score. An unfamiliar inquiry notation associated with prescreening is not, by itself, proof of identity theft; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that companies may access information for the limited purpose of determining whether you meet criteria for a firm offer.
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A prescreened offer is not the same as unconditional approval. The mailing may promise that you meet initial criteria, but you still may have to submit an application, verify income, satisfy debt-to-income or collateral requirements, and meet the terms printed in the offer. Treat the letter as marketing based on a credit-file profile, not as a guarantee that a new lender will approve you or match the advertised rate.
What the official opt-out service does
OptOutPrescreen.com is the consumer service used to request that your name be excluded from firm-offer lists provided by the four participating nationwide credit-reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion. You may submit a request online or by telephone.
The service concerns prescreened firm offers of credit and insurance. It is not a credit freeze, fraud alert, or instruction preventing a lender from obtaining your report when you apply for credit. It also is not a universal “stop junk mail” registry. Other businesses and organizations can use sources unrelated to the four participating companies.
The request is targeted: it asks the participating companies not to include an identified consumer on lists used for these firm offers. It does not delete information from a credit file, change a score, cancel existing accounts, or stop a company from servicing an account you already hold. You remain free to apply for a mortgage, refinance, credit card, auto loan, or insurance policy directly. A direct application is evaluated under that company’s ordinary application process.
Choose between a five-year and permanent opt-out
| Option | How it works | Duration | Effort | Changing your mind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic five-year opt-out | Submit the request through OptOutPrescreen.com or the telephone service. | Five years from processing, according to the official form. | Online or phone entry; no mailed signature is required. | You can later use the service’s opt-in path. |
| Permanent opt-out | Start online or by phone, then print, sign, and mail the Permanent Opt-Out Election form. | Permanent unless you later opt back in. | Requires printing, signing, and returning the form by mail. | The service provides a way to opt back in if you decide to receive offers again. |
A five-year request is useful if you want a reversible break while you settle into a new home or compare your insurance and credit options. It also lets you reassess before the period ends. A permanent election involves more work because of the signed mail-in form, but it avoids having to renew the request every five years. Neither choice blocks you from applying for a mortgage, credit card, personal loan, or insurance policy on your own; it only affects whether your information is used to generate these particular firm-offer lists.
Think about your timing. Someone who expects to shop for refinancing or a new insurance policy soon may value the ability to compare unsolicited offers and choose the five-year route, or postpone opting out. Someone who does not want recurring solicitations and is comfortable seeking products independently may prefer permanent status. The service’s opt-in process means permanent does not have to be an irreversible life decision, but restoring eligibility does not make a company send an offer on demand.
How to submit the request
1. Use the official channel
Go to OptOutPrescreen.com, or call 1-888-567-8688 (1-888-5-OPT-OUT). The service identifies itself as the official consumer site and names Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion as the participating companies. Avoid entering personal information into a look-alike site reached through an unsolicited advertisement or email; type the service name yourself or use the telephone number shown above.
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Do not confuse this service with a credit bureau’s general opt-out form, a credit-freeze portal, or a private mail-removal company that charges a fee. The official channel handles the four participating companies together and is the route identified by the FTC and CFPB for prescreened credit and insurance offers.
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2. Select the length of the opt-out
The electronic selection is the five-year option. The site or telephone system will explain how to begin a permanent election if you want the request to continue indefinitely. Read the selection carefully before submitting it, because the permanent route has an additional paper step. Save a note of which choice you made; the distinction matters if offers continue during the transition or if you later want to opt back in.
3. Enter the identifying information requested
The form asks for your name and address. It identifies your Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number and your date of birth as optional. Supplying those fields may help the participating company locate the correct credit-file record and process the request, but you can decide whether to provide them. Enter information only through the official site or telephone service.
Use the name and mailing address associated with the consumer you are trying to remove. If you recently changed your name, moved, or have a credit file showing an earlier address, follow the form’s prompts carefully. A request is tied to the individual identified, so a household should not assume that entering one person’s information covers another person’s file.
4. Finish a five-year electronic request
Review the information you entered and submit the electronic election. Keep the submission details or confirmation information displayed by the service for your records. The request applies to the consumer identified in the submission; if another adult in your household also wants to stop offers, that person should submit a separate request.
Record the date you submitted the request and, if shown, the date the five-year period is expected to end. The official form describes the name as ineligible for firm-offer lists for five years from processing. That is different from a promise that every letter already in production will disappear immediately.
5. Finish a permanent election by mail
- Begin the permanent opt-out process online or by telephone.
- Print the Permanent Opt-Out Election form the service provides.
- Check the form for accuracy, sign it, and follow its mailing instructions.
- Retain a copy of the signed form and note when you mailed it.
The FTC and CFPB both describe the signed, mailed form as the step that completes a permanent election. Starting the process online without returning the signed form does not create the permanent status. If you cannot print the form, use the telephone service to learn the available process rather than assuming that an electronic submission alone is permanent.
6. Repeat for a spouse or co-borrower when appropriate
Opt-out requests are tied to the individual identified. A spouse, co-borrower, or other household member who receives separate offers should make a separate election through the same official channel. Do not assume that one person’s request automatically covers everyone at the address. Joint mortgage applicants may therefore submit two requests, one for each person, even though the offers arrived in the same envelope.
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The Federal Trade Commission says opt-out requests are processed within five days. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes implementation within five business days. These are processing or implementation expectations, not a guarantee that physical mail will stop on the fifth day.
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A company may already have received your name before the request was processed, prepared a mailing, or handed it to the postal service. For that reason, both agencies warn that offers can continue for several weeks. A letter delivered after day five may have been generated from an earlier list, so its arrival date does not show when the list was purchased or when the request reached the company.
Keep the request date and any confirmation details so you can distinguish normal transition mail from a problem with the submission. If a large volume arrives immediately after a mortgage application, sort envelopes by postmark and sender before concluding that the opt-out failed. Allow the published processing period plus several weeks for existing campaigns to work through the system.
What the service will not stop
The four-company service removes your information from the participating credit-reporting companies’ firm-offer lists. It does not remove you from every marketing database. You may still receive:
- Offers based on other data sources or mailing lists not supplied by Equifax, Experian, Innovis, or TransUnion.
- Marketing from a bank, insurer, retailer, or other company with which you already have a relationship.
- Mail from local merchants and community businesses.
- Solicitations from charities, religious organizations, alumni groups, professional associations, and similar organizations.
- Offers addressed to a previous resident, a former name, or another person at the same address.
To reduce those categories, you must contact the sender or the list owner individually. The prescreened-offer request cannot cancel a company’s existing-customer marketing permission, and it cannot control organizations that never used the participating credit-reporting companies’ lists. If the envelope is addressed to a former resident, mark it “return to sender” or contact the sender as appropriate; that is a separate address-maintenance issue, not evidence that the opt-out was ignored.
Insurance advertisements can also come from an insurer’s own customer or prospect database rather than a nationwide credit-reporting list. Likewise, a mortgage company with which you already communicated may continue follow-up marketing under its own relationship rules. The targeted opt-out does not override those independent practices.
Decide whether opting out is right for you
Opting out can reduce unsolicited firm offers and limit the use of your credit-file information for this type of marketing. That may be especially appealing while you are dealing with moving, new-account paperwork, and a large volume of mortgage-related mail. Fewer offers can also make it easier to distinguish important lender notices from promotional material.
There is a trade-off. The FTC notes that prescreened offers can help consumers compare products, may contain terms more favorable than generally available terms, and can be the only way some products are offered. If you are actively shopping for a credit card, insurance policy, or refinancing product, you may prefer to keep receiving selected offers and evaluate them carefully instead of opting out immediately. A prescreened offer is not automatically the cheapest or safest choice, so compare rates, fees, coverage, and terms before accepting one.
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- Consider the five-year option if you want a temporary reduction in mail and the ability to revisit the decision later.
- Consider the permanent option if you do not want these firm offers unless you deliberately opt back in and are willing to complete the mail-in form.
- Wait or opt back in if you are intentionally collecting offers for a planned purchase, refinance, or insurance comparison.
- Do not use the opt-out as a substitute for identity-theft protection. It does not freeze your credit file or prevent a lender from reviewing your report after you apply.
Handle unsolicited live-check offers safely
Some prescreened loan promotions arrive with a paper check that can be deposited or cashed if the recipient accepts the offer. If you reject an unsolicited live-check offer, the CFPB advises destroying the check securely to reduce the risk of fraudulent use. A paper shredder is one practical way to make the check unusable, but shredding is relevant only to disposing of a live check; it is not part of the OptOutPrescreen procedure.
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Do not sign, deposit, or provide bank-account information merely because a mailed check looks official. If you are not accepting the offer, destroy it as the CFPB recommends. If you want to investigate the product, use contact details you verify independently and review the terms, rather than relying solely on a number in an unexpected mailing.
Do not call a telephone number printed on a suspicious offer to submit your opt-out request. Use the official service’s number, 1-888-567-8688, instead.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.If offers continue after you submit a request
Offers arrive during the first several weeks
This can be normal because lists may have been supplied before your request was implemented. Keep the mail and compare its mailing date with your submission date. Do not interpret a few additional pieces as proof that the request failed. The five-day or five-business-day figure concerns processing, while postal delivery and a campaign’s production schedule can extend the visible transition.
Offers continue well after the processing window
Check whether the mail is actually a prescreened firm offer. Look for language indicating that you were selected based on information in a credit report. If the sender is a company you already use, a local business, a charity, or another organization outside the four participating credit-reporting companies, the opt-out service does not control that mailing. Contact that sender directly. If the mail appears to be from a participating company but you are unsure, retain the envelope and offer details while confirming that your request was submitted correctly through the official service.
You chose permanent opt-out but never mailed the form
The permanent election is not complete until the printed form is signed and returned. Restart the process through the official site or telephone service if you no longer have the form, then follow the current mailing instructions. Keep a copy and mailing date so you can show when you completed the required step.
You changed your mind
OptOutPrescreen.com and its telephone service provide an opt-in path. Use that official process if you want to become eligible for firm-offer lists again. Reversing the election does not guarantee immediate offers; companies still decide when to obtain lists and mail campaigns. Opting back in also does not require you to accept any offer you receive.
You are worried an inquiry means identity theft
Prescreening inquiries do not affect your credit score, and the CFPB says an inquiry used to determine eligibility for a firm offer is permitted for that limited purpose. Review your reports for unfamiliar accounts or applications, but do not treat a prescreening notation alone as proof that someone opened credit in your name. If you find an actual unauthorized account or application, use the relevant creditor and credit-reporting-company dispute and identity-theft procedures.
A practical record-keeping checklist
- Record whether you selected the electronic five-year or permanent election.
- Save the submission details shown online or provided during the call.
- If using the permanent route, keep a copy of the signed form and note the mailing date.
- Allow the published processing period plus several weeks for already prepared mail to work through the system.
- Sort later offers by source: participating-credit-reporting-company prescreening, an existing relationship, or another marketer.
- Submit a separate request for each adult who wants to opt out.
- Destroy any rejected live-check promotion securely.
The official choice is straightforward: submit through OptOutPrescreen.com or 1-888-567-8688, select the duration that fits your plans, and understand that this targeted request reduces one category of offers rather than eliminating all marketing mail.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does buying a house automatically put me on a prescreened-offer list?
The FTC says a mortgage application may trigger competing prescreened or preapproved offers. The available guidance does not establish that the closing itself automatically adds you to a list.
How do I opt out right now?
Use OptOutPrescreen.com or call 1-888-567-8688 (1-888-5-OPT-OUT). Choose the electronic five-year election, or start the permanent election and print, sign, and mail the form.
Is the opt-out permanent?
The electronic request lasts five years. A permanent election requires the signed form to be returned by mail. You can later use the service’s opt-in process if you want offers again.
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No. It covers firm offers based on lists from Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion. Existing business relationships, local merchants, charities, associations, and other list sources are outside the service.
How soon will the offers stop?
The FTC says requests are processed within five days, and the CFPB says implementation occurs within five business days. Mail can continue for several weeks because lists may already have been supplied or campaigns mailed.
Does prescreening hurt my credit score?
No. The FTC says prescreening inquiries do not affect your credit score.
Do my spouse and co-borrower need separate requests?
Yes. The request applies to the individual identified, so each adult who wants to opt out should submit a separate request.
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If you reject it, the CFPB advises destroying the check securely. Shredding is optional practical equipment for that task, not part of the opt-out procedure.
The Bottom Line
Submit your request only through OptOutPrescreen.com or 1-888-567-8688. Choose five years electronically or complete the signed mail-in form for a permanent election, then allow several weeks for existing mailings to clear. The service limits prescreened offers from four participating credit-reporting companies; it does not stop every marketer or replace a credit freeze.
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