OptOutPrescreen: How to Stop Prescreened Credit and Insurance Offers

OptOutPrescreen (OptOutPrescreen.com) is the official website, run by the consumer credit reporting companies, where you can stop them from including your name on lists sold for prescreened credit and insurance offers. You can opt out online for five years, or opt out permanently by mailing a signed form that the site generates. It’s free, it doesn’t affect your credit score, and you can opt back in whenever you like.

This guide explains what prescreened offers are, how to use the site safely, which option to choose, and what the opt-out won’t do.

What OptOutPrescreen is

Lenders and insurers can pay the credit bureaus to screen their files and produce a list of consumers who meet certain criteria, such as a minimum credit score. Those people then receive “prescreened” or “preapproved” offers in the mail. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) allows this practice, and it also gives you the right to opt out of it.

OptOutPrescreen is the single official channel for that right. The site is operated on behalf of the consumer credit reporting companies Equifax, Experian, TransUnion and Innovis, so one request covers all four. The Federal Trade Commission points consumers to this site and to its phone line, 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688), as the legitimate way to opt out.

What an opt-out does, in plain terms: the bureaus stop putting your name on the prescreened lists they sell. Offers already in the pipeline may still arrive for a while, because lists are often pulled weeks or months before mail goes out.

Five-year opt-out vs permanent opt-out

The site gives you two choices. Both are free.

	Five-year opt-out	Permanent opt-out
How you do it	Online or by phone	Start online, then print, sign and mail the Permanent Opt-Out Election form
How long it lasts	Five years, then you’d need to renew	Until you choose to opt back in
Effort	A few minutes	A few minutes plus a stamp
Reversible?	Yes, you can opt in at any time	Yes, you can opt in at any time

Most people who want the offers gone for good choose the permanent option, since it saves remembering to renew. If you think you might want to compare offers in the next year or two, such as before a big purchase, the five-year option is easier to live with. Either way, you can reverse the decision on the same site.

How to use OptOutPrescreen, step by step

1. Type the address yourself. Go directly to optoutprescreen.com rather than clicking an ad or a search result you’re unsure about. Lookalike sites exist, and some charge for something that is free.
2. Choose “opt out” and pick your option. Select the five-year electronic opt-out or the permanent opt-out.
3. Enter your details. The form asks for your name, current address, and usually your date of birth and Social Security number, which the bureaus use to match you to their files. The site explains that this information is used to process your request. If you’ve moved recently, you may be asked about your previous address.
4. Confirm and submit. Review the details carefully, because a typo can stop the match.
5. For the permanent option, mail the form. The site produces a Permanent Opt-Out Election form. Print it, sign it and mail it to the address shown on the form. The permanent opt-out isn’t complete until they receive the signed form.
6. Keep a record. Note the date you submitted and keep a copy of any confirmation page or the form you mailed.

If you’d rather not enter your Social Security number online, you can use the phone line instead. It’s the same official process, handled by an automated system.

What the opt-out does and doesn’t stop

OptOutPrescreen is narrow by design. It helps to know its limits before you expect your mailbox to go quiet.

• It stops: prescreened credit card, loan and insurance offers based on lists from the participating credit bureaus.
• It doesn’t stop: offers from banks and insurers you already do business with, which can use their own customer data.
• It doesn’t stop: general marketing mail that isn’t based on credit data, such as catalogs, coupons and “resident” flyers.
• It doesn’t stop: marketing lists from data brokers like Acxiom, which have their own opt-outs.
• It doesn’t freeze your credit. Someone could still apply for credit in your name. A security freeze is the tool for that.
• It doesn’t affect your credit score or your ability to apply for credit yourself.

OptOutPrescreen vs a credit freeze vs a fraud alert

These three tools get mixed up constantly. They solve different problems.

Tool	What it does	Where to do it
Prescreen opt-out	Stops the bureaus selling your name for prescreened offers	OptOutPrescreen, once for all participating bureaus
Security freeze	Blocks most new creditors from seeing your credit report, which makes it much harder to open accounts in your name	Each bureau separately (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and Innovis if you want it covered too)
Fraud alert	Asks lenders to take extra steps to verify your identity before opening credit	Any one of the three nationwide bureaus, which passes it to the other two

Security freezes are free at the nationwide bureaus under federal law. If identity theft is your worry, a freeze does far more than an opt-out. Our guide on how to prevent identity theft walks through freezing and unfreezing.

That said, the opt-out still helps with identity theft risk in a small way. A prescreened offer stolen from your mailbox is one less thing a thief can use, so many people do both.

A worked example

This is an illustrative scenario, not a real client.

Ravi receives three or four credit card offers a week at his apartment. He shreds most of them, but he’s heard that stolen mail is a common starting point for fraud, and his building’s mailboxes aren’t very secure.

1. He types optoutprescreen.com into his browser, chooses the permanent opt-out, and enters his details.
2. He prints the Permanent Opt-Out Election form, signs it and mails it, keeping a photo of the signed form.
3. Because the real risk is fraud, he also places a free security freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and saves the PINs or login details he’ll need to lift it.
4. For the rest of his marketing mail, he registers with DMAchoice and sends opt-outs to the largest data brokers.

Over the next couple of months the prescreened offers taper off. A few still arrive from his own bank, which he stops by changing his marketing preferences with the bank directly.

Common mistakes

• Using a paid lookalike site. The official opt-out costs nothing.
• Forgetting to mail the permanent form. Without the signed form, you only have the five-year opt-out or nothing at all, depending on what you completed.
• Expecting instant results. Lists already sold before your request can still produce mail for a while.
• Treating it as a credit freeze. It doesn’t block anyone from opening an account in your name.
• Forgetting the five-year clock. If you chose the electronic option, set a reminder to renew.
• Opting out just before you shop for credit. Prescreened offers can occasionally be useful for comparing rates. You can opt back in, but plan ahead.

Where this fits in a wider privacy cleanup

OptOutPrescreen covers one slice of the data trade: credit-based marketing. The credit bureaus also run separate marketing and data businesses with their own opt-outs, which we cover in our guide to credit bureau marketing opt-outs. Innovis, the fourth bureau that participates in OptOutPrescreen, has its own guide on the Innovis opt-out.

For marketing data more broadly, our data broker opt-out list collects the main brokers in one checklist. If your personal details are showing up in search results or on people-search sites, that’s a separate problem, and our personal reputation management service can help with it. We’ll tell you honestly which parts you can handle yourself.

Frequently asked questions

Is OptOutPrescreen legit?

Yes. OptOutPrescreen.com is the official site operated by the consumer credit reporting companies, and the FTC directs consumers to it and to 1-888-5-OPT-OUT for opting out of prescreened offers. Be careful to type the address yourself, since lookalike sites exist.

Why does OptOutPrescreen ask for my Social Security number?

The credit bureaus use identifiers such as your Social Security number and date of birth to match your request to the right credit file. If you’re uncomfortable entering it online, you can make the same request through the official phone line.

Does opting out of prescreened offers hurt my credit score?

No. Opting out doesn’t affect your credit score, your existing accounts, or your ability to apply for credit. It only stops the bureaus from including you on prescreened marketing lists.

How long until the offers stop?

It depends on how recently your name was sold on a list. Offers based on lists pulled before your request can keep arriving for a while, so expect a gradual drop over the following weeks and months rather than an immediate stop.

Can I opt back in later?

Yes. You can opt back in on the same site at any time, whether you chose the five-year or the permanent opt-out.