After years of battling junk mail (the real kind, not the SPAM kind) it seems that I’m finally winning the war. I no longer receive catalogs, car warranty scams, credit card offers, AT&T solicitations or other “personalized” direct marketing mail.
For decades I’ve opted out of receiving this stuff. I regularly updated the DMA choice site, used the Opt Out option with the credit reporting agencies and requested to be removed by companies.
None of that seemed to have much effect.
Over the past three years, here’s what I’ve done differently:
- Withdrew from social activity (due to covid and life choices)
- Canceled USPS mail forwarding
- Canceled my voter registration
- Locked my credit reports
- Meticulously contacted specific companies
- Refuse to buy from certain companies that automatically add me to their junk mail list and/or sell my info
- Make only anonymous donations to charities (notorious for selling/sharing donor lists)
- Whenever possible, I’ve set my bills, updates, and legit business communication to use email
Many companies, like LL Bean, Chicos, AAA, and Wayfair will hound you forever once you make a purchase from them. I wrote each a letter to each of these, specifically requesting to be removed from their lists. Sometimes I mentioned that my wife had died and I would never be purchasing women’s clothing from them again. With others, I said I would got to their websites if I wanted to buy anything.
For the most part, my guess is they ignored my requests. It’s just as likely they stopped direct mailings and are just using SPAM instead. I am very aggressive with SPAM auto-deletion so either way it works out for me.
I think the voter registration thing is big. I know Florida sells their voter registration list and I suspect NC does too. I know the same goes for USPS mail forwarding lists. Unfortunately, I can’t get off the DMV motor registration list, so I’ll still likely get those auto warranty scam mailings again.
Every month I get some bulk religious mail that is designed to look like it was handwritten. I recognize the fake handwriting technique so these go directly from my my mailbox to the trash unopened.
The only bulk mail I still receive on a regular basis is the “Occupant” mail that the post office will not stop delivering. You know, the coupon books for businesses I will never buy from like the Chinese Buffet restaurant, the Custom Blinds Company, and the Kitchen/Bath Remodelers. Since the post office insists on delivering these and won’t take them back, I toss them directly into the trash too.
When I was a child, I liked getting mail. That’s because I got cards with money.
When I was a young adult, mail was entirely bills.
Now, other than a few cards a year from my mother, I’m getting nothing. When she passes, other than an occasional purchase that comes via USPS, I can almost stop checking at all.