News & Stories

July 2024

What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance

Companies sometimes try to get new customers by sending “prescreened” offers. Typically, you will get these offers because of information in your credit report. Prescreening does not hurt your credit score. There will be “inquiries” on your credit report showing which companies reviewed your information for prescreening, but those inquiries do not hurt your credit.

How it works

A creditor or insurance company decides what the requirements are to qualify for their products. They base the decision on information in credit reports, such as borrowing and payment history, or credit score. Then, the company asks a credit bureau — like Equifax, Experian, Transunion, or Innovis — to give them a list of people in their databases whose credit reports show that they meet their requirements. The company may also give a credit bureau a list of potential customers and ask which customers meet its requirements.

Opting Out of Prescreened Offers

If you don’t want to get prescreened offers in the mail, you have two choices:

• Opt out for five years: Go to optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688). The major credit bureaus operate the phone number and website.

• Opt out permanently: Go to optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) to start the process. To complete your request, sign and return the Permanent Opt-Out Election form (which you get online).
• Offers from other sources: This will stop only prescreened offers that are based on lists from the major credit bureaus. You may keep getting offers for credit and insurance based on lists from other sources.

When you call or visit optoutprescreen.com, they’ll ask for your personal information, including your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. The information you give is confidential and may be used only to process your request to opt out.

Requests to opt out are processed within five days, but it may take several weeks before you stop getting prescreened offers. That’s because some companies may have gotten your information before the site processed your opt-out request.

[Source=Federal Trade Commission]