Have you gotten offers for credit or insurance that say you’ve been prescreened or prequalified? Typically, you’ll get these offers because of information in your credit report.
Here’s 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 people’s credit reports, like their borrowing and payment history, or their 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 those requirements. The company also might give a credit bureau a list of potential customers and ask which customers meet its requirements.
Prescreening doesn’t hurt your credit score. There will be "inquiries" on your credit report showing which companies got your information for prescreening, but those inquiries won’t hurt your credit.
If you don’t want to get prescreened offers in the mail, you have two choices:
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.
Opting out will not stop all unsolicited offers of credit and insurance
Calling the opt-out line or visiting the site 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. Opting out also won't end mail from local merchants, religious groups, charities, professional and alumni associations, and companies that you already do business with. To stop mail from groups like these — as well as mail addressed to "occupant" or "resident" — contact each source directly.
