Bombarded by Unwanted Credit Card Offers? Here's How to Make Them Stop

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• The credit bureaus share your information with credit card companies looking to send out pre-qualifying credit card offers.
• You can remove yourself from this list online, but you must mail in a form to stop offers permanently.
• Opting out may not stop offers from banks that don't use credit bureau data to put together their mailing lists.

Credit card issuers mail out offers to millions of Americans, often without the person ever showing any interest in applying for that particular card. Sending these offers helps creditors drum up new business, but it can be annoying for you. All that paper goes to waste if you don't want the card, and you don't want an identity thief to get hold of it and try to open a card in your name.

It's possible to stop these credit card offers from coming, but there are a few hoops to jump through. Below, we'll look at how to do it and how credit card companies get your information in the first place.