Combine mailing-list programs without duplicate work

Sort the pile into routes

1. Group the mail you want to stop: catalogs and retail promotions, magazine and donation requests, credit or insurance offers, and pieces from companies where you are a customer or donor.
2. For prospect catalogs, magazine offers and similar mail, check DMAchoice’s current scope. Record a registration once as a program action instead of logging it as a separate request to every company.
3. For credit or insurance offers, check whether the piece came through a major-bureau list before relying on the prescreen service. If it did, the service offers a five-year option and a permanent option. Permanent removal requires returning the signed election form.
4. For a named company’s customer advertising or another mailing outside a program’s scope, use its own published preference route. Record the specific mail you asked it to stop.
5. Mark whether each entry is a broad registration, a direct request, or a follow-up to an earlier request. Keep any overlap intentional and explain it in a short note.

Where the coverage stops

Customer status alone does not tell you whether a credit offer came from a bureau list. Prescreen opt-out does not stop a company’s own customer-list marketing or other non-bureau advertising. Check the offer’s explanation and the program’s scope instead of classifying it solely by the logo.

A response from one company also does not establish what another company changed. Keep the confirmation or stated processing period with the request it actually concerns.

Turn leftovers into sender requests

Pieces marked direct sender on the worksheet each need their own request. Copy the company name and the return address printed on each one. Then find that company's stated contact route for mail preferences, or ask whether it has one.

Official sources

• ANA: DMAchoice consumer choices FAQ
• FTC: Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance