After my own dark past with credit, now resolved thank god, thank god, I am now getting TONS of credit card offers.  In our house, we get at least three a day, I would guess.  I finally decided to find out how to opt-out of such things, and thought I’d do a post on credt-y stuff.

First, to opt out, visit https://www.optoutprescreen.com .  I’ve put in the whole URL, because it’s important to have the httpS in there to let you know it’s secure.  It asks for all of your identifying information, yes, so I googled the shit out of it, and felt very confident about submitting said info when a PDF at the ftc.gov site gave it (along with a phone number and address) as an option to staunch the flow of credit card offers.  (Phone is 888-5-OPTOUT/ 888-567-8688)

Also, most (all? I should research) states are providing one free credit report a year to individuals.  Maine started this a year or two ago, but it was a pain in the ass — download this form, snail mail it to this agency, etc etc.  Now, AnnualCreditReport will do all that for you.  (Maine and most of the northeast is not available until September 1, so sit tight for a few weeks.)  You can get one credit report from each of the big 3 agencies every 12 months — all 3 at once, or you can space it out over every four months to keep track of what’s what.

And, if you are totally fucked as far as credit goes, especially credit card debt, Consumer Credit Counseling Services (link to the Maine branch) saved my ass. I am a homeowner now, you know? There are tons of scammy "counseling services" or "debt repair" services out there, but CCCS is one of the oldest and most trusted.  I can vouch for them.  The National Foundation for Credit Counseling has a lookup service, as well, if you need advice.  (a search for my ZIP code brought me to CCCS of Maine, who I used and loved.)