Stop pre-approved credit card and insurance offers in the mail
Those offers are made from lists the credit bureaus sell. They can be stolen from a mailbox and used to open an account in your name.
This is free. You don't need Free My ID to do it.
Printing this for someone? Press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac).
- Cost
- Free.
- Time
- 5 minutes online for 5 years. About 20 minutes plus a stamp for the permanent kind.
- Official site
- optoutprescreen.com
What to have ready
- Name
- Home address
- Social Security number and date of birth (the site asks)
- For permanent: a printer, a pen and a stamp
Step by step
- Open optoutprescreen.com, or call 1-888-567-8688 (1-888-5-OPT-OUT). Check this phone number on the official site before you call.
- Choose how long. 'Five years' finishes online or by phone in a few minutes.
- For 'Permanent', you start online, then print the Permanent Opt-Out Election form, sign it and mail it to the address printed on it.
- Offers can keep coming for a few weeks.
Opens optoutprescreen.com, the official website.
Good to know
- This stops pre-approved offers from the credit bureaus only. It does not stop all junk mail.
- Only use optoutprescreen.com or the phone number above. Look-alike sites may charge you or steal your details.
How to undo it
Use the same website or phone number to opt back in.
Sources
We checked these steps on November 7, 2026 against:
Companies change their pages often. If something looks different, follow what the official page says.
See all the free steps to protect yourself
Steps from the Free My ID checklists, version 2026.11.07.2 (CC BY-NC 4.0).