Trying To Beat Junk Mail

For the past six months, I have been bombarded with credit-card offers of low interest, no annual fees and balance transfers. I have not applied for any new credit.

All these offers, addressed to me personally or to the small business I operate under my own name - but not to my husband - announce that I have been pre-approved. In one day’s mail, I received nine such offers.

I do not give a lot of thought to junk mail and usually throw these wonderful, too-good-to-be-true offers in the round file.

Then the day came when I decided to upgrade an existing cell phone account, which had been in my spouse’s name, in mine. I was surprised to be turned down due to my bad credit.

Hindsight is said to be a good eye-opener. I now understand.

As a consumer, I am allowed a copy of my credit report because I was denied credit. So I dialed the toll-free number, received a copy of my credit report, and was shocked to see the problem.

Over the past two years, 35 - count them, 35 - bank credit cards and companies have checked my credit rating. Thirty-five times my credit status has been sent, without my knowledge, to someone I do not know, do not do business with, and did not authorize access to my personal credit information.

Multiple inquiries into one’s credit rating can be interpreted as a sign of financial difficulties. The credit-report companies allow you to attach an explanation, which I did.

The result, nevertheless, is that I now have bad credit. I cannot purchase or open an account under my name. However, my husband’s name remains untarnished.

Our household still runs on the same budget. I pay my bills in the same way. But I cannot do new business under my own name.

This upset me.

To get control of the problem, I printed a sheet of mail labels in red ink stating, “Please REMOVE this name and address from your mailing list.” Now, when I get junk mail, I tear off the section with my name and address, paste on a red remove-it label and insert it into the postage-paid return envelope provided for me to accept their generous offer.

To date, I have used 75 of my red labels, but the new offers still come, and from the same companies. I continue to use my red labels. Maybe, someday, I’ll beat the junk mail system and get real mail in my box and regain good credit.