Mail guides
Keep important mail
Keep important letters out of advertising cleanup.
Keep benefit renewal letters separate from advertising
Move anything that looks like a benefit renewal out of the advertising pile and read it before you decide what it is. A letter from an agency or insurer may ask you to do something that affects your coverage or benefits, so keep it out of any removal batch. If you are not sure who sent it, check with a contact you already trust.
Set aside a court-looking letter for independent verification
Take any court-looking letter out of the advertising pile and keep it. An odd design or an unfamiliar sender is not a reason to throw it away. Look up the court named on the letter yourself and check the notice with that court's clerk.
Verify a debt letter before calling it junk mail
Do not treat a letter about money owed as junk mail until you have checked it. According to the CFPB, a legitimate collector can identify its company and give information about the claimed debt, so ask for both before you share any personal financial details. A marketing removal request is the wrong tool for this letter and will not answer the question it raises.
Read a financial privacy notice before discarding it
Read it before you toss it. A privacy notice from a financial company can look like a brochure, yet it may describe choices about how that company shares your information. If it lists options, note them and respond only through the route the notice names, after confirming that route with the company.
Separate an insurance explanation from a sales offer
Keep a possible explanation of benefits with your private records while you check it against the insurer's account or claim information. A matching claim helps identify the subject but does not, by itself, authenticate a letter. Verify unfamiliar contact, payment or response instructions through the number on your insurance card or an account route you already trust.
Verify a jury-related letter through the court
Treat a jury-related letter as a possible summons until the court says otherwise. Keep the letter with its envelope and confirm it with the court clerk, using contact details you look up yourself. If someone contacts you about the letter before you have checked it, do not give them personal details.
Separate hospital fundraising from care correspondence
Use the donation appeal's verified opt-out instructions or the hospital's fundraising office to stop appeals. For fundraising communications covered by HIPAA's fundraising rule, the provider must offer an opt-out and cannot condition treatment or payment on that choice. Keep care, appointment and billing correspondence outside the request.
Keep Medicare account letters out of junk-mail requests
Keep a letter claiming a Medicare account change as possible account correspondence while you verify it. Comparing the described action with your secure Medicare account can help, but a real event alone does not authenticate the letter. Use Medicare's official contact route before following unfamiliar instructions.
Find the official digital Medicare handbook option
Medicare offers electronic delivery of the Medicare & You handbook through a secure Medicare account. Make the change in that account. A junk-mail request to a sender is the wrong route for it. Reach the account through the official Medicare website you open yourself, not through a link printed on a letter.
Separate Medicare plan brochures from official mail
Mail that mentions Medicare may come from Medicare or from a private plan selling coverage. Medicare distinguishes its official account and coverage correspondence from plan marketing. To sort a piece, identify who sent it and what it asks you to do. Only confirmed plan sales mail should be treated as advertising.
Separate product safety correspondence from an upsell
Ask the verified manufacturer one question first: is this mailing a safety or recall notice, or a promotion? Until you have an answer, treat anything that mentions a defect, a repair or a product you own as possibly important. Then make a narrow request to stop sales offers only.
Check a Social Security-related letter independently
Do not file a Social Security-related letter with the ads. The SSA warns that impersonators may send letters as well as calls and electronic messages, and that official-looking details do not prove who sent something. Verify the letter through a channel you already know belongs to the agency before you decide anything else.