by KYW's Amy Feldman

Ever get those “pre-approved” credit card offers in the mail?  Ever wonder what kind of credit rating you’d have to have not to be “pre-approved?”  With the alarming rise of identity theft, not only don’t many consumers want the “pre-approved” credit card, they don’t even want the pre-approved credit card solicitation sitting in their mailbox while they’re at work all day.  The Federal Trade Commission has rules about those offers that you should know.

FTC regulations require notices on prescreened offers for pre-approved credit or insurance.  Now each prescreened offer must contain a short statement informing consumers of their right to opt out of receiving the offers in the future, and listing the toll-free number to call.  That notice can’t be buried in the small print on page 20, but has to appear on the document designed to be seen first, like the cover letter.  If you don’t want those offers sitting around in your mailbox, you’ll soon have a number to tell the solicitors where they can shove them.