November 2007

NO MORE ANNOYING PRE-QUALIFIED JUNK MAIL

If you are like me and millions of other people continuously receiving pre-approved junk mail from everywhere and everybody, you may be looking for a way to make it stop. OptOutPrescreen.com is the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry website to accept and process requests from consumers to Opt-In or Opt-Out of Firm Offers of credit or insurance.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make Firm Offers of credit or insurance that is not initiated by you. The FCRA also provides you the right to Opt-Out, which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for Firm Offers.

If you decide you want to Opt-Out, you no longer will be included in the Firm Offer lists that are provided by the four Consumer Credit Reporting Companies – Experian, Equifax, Trans Union and Innovis. Keep in mind that if you do decide to this, you will no longer be able to potentially benefit from having ready access to product information on credit and insurance products that may not be available to the general public.

When you Opt-Out you will have a choice to Opt-Out for 5 years or permanently. If you do Opt-Out and then later decide to Opt-In, you do have that luxury. I have heard two different sides of the story on whether doing this will increase your credit score. I heard that the Credit Bureaus consider if you Opt-Out that you are a more credit conscious person not wanting to be subject to the continuous temptations of pre-approvals in the mail. Thus, they are willing to “reward” you by improving your credit score 24-68 points. There are many lenders across the country that believe this and highly recommend it to all of their customers for a quick- improved credit score.

On the other side of the story I personally have been doing research on this company and from what I am finding, it states that it does not improve your credit score. I track my personal credit score on a monthly basis and decided to Opt-Out myself. I am anxious to see what it will do to my credit score when it updates in November.

In closing, I wanted to bring this information to the public to make sure Legacy Consulting Group Inc continues to do what it was created for… educating the public on the basics of credit, debt and finances. This is a very basic tool for all of us to utilize if we decide to not receive Firm Offers of credit and insurance continuously in the mail. You can visit the web-site to learn more at www.optoutprescreen.com. I want to make sure everyone understands that if you do Opt-Out, this does not stop you from having the ability to apply for credit or insurance. It simply stops the credit bureaus from giving your information out for Firm Offers.