I Get Sooooo Many Credit Card Solicitations

I'd like to share some very interesting information today from my personal experience.

We all know the dangers of debt.  (If you don't, read this post.) And some of the worst and most abused debt is credit card debt. 

Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not anti-credit cards to the extent Dave Ramsey is. I've had a credit card for almost 20 years now and have NEVER paid one cent in interest. But I do know that many people can't manage credit cards properly.  And the credit card companies don't make it easy as they constantly bombard all of us with offer after offer.

I'll talk about our responsibilities with credit cards in a later post.  For now, I wanted to think about the role of the credit card companies.  Just how aggressive are they?

So I did a little experiment.  I counted the number of credit card solicitations that I received in the mail for one month (May, 2005). I thought I had been receiving a good number every month, but even I was surprised at the number. Want to guess how many? 

I'll tell you tomorrow. :-)

Just to make things fun, make a guess in the comments section below. If you guess correctly, I'll note it in my post tomorrow along with a link to your blog.  (Only one guess per person please.)

Update: Time to post to the Beltway Traffic Jam!

Comments

[nickel]

Seventeen.

By the way, you can opt out of a lot of the pre-screened credit offer by contacting the credit bureaus.
--
http://www.fivecentnickel.com/

[ante_up]

I don't get ANY credit card offers any more (which is how I like it)since I (1) opted out through the Direct Marketing Association and (2) wrote to Citibank and Bank of America requesting that they take me off of any and all lists.

[Flexo]

A while ago I contacted Discover to tell them to stop sending me offers. I was getting one every other day. Somehow, I'm back on their list. 17 is a good guess, but since that's already taken, I'll say 16.

[Rob Lewis]

Hmmm... I'll take a guess at 14.

[BA]

As long as we aren't playing Price is Right style where you have to be close without going over I'm going to with 31. If we are playing Price is Right it looks like 18 is the hot number right now :)

[Dan]

I average about 25-30 per month. 90% of those seem to come from Providian and Citibank. I'll guess 25.

[Cap]

as mentioned, you can always opt-out. here's the link to it online:

http://www.optoutprescreen.com/

there's pros and cons to it.. some offers really are pre-approves for a selective pool of people with what they're looking for... so if you want some nice offer, you might want to stay opt-in.

one major reason to opt-out is to do it about 3-6 months before you begin your mortgage loan hunting... the minute that mortgage loan inqury shows up... you'll get all those lovly calls from loan companies.

anyways.. I'll go with 23.

[~dawn]

I guess 27 - almost one a day maybe?

[Andrew]

I'll say 30. I get way too many as well. I've already got the Citi Dividend and AMEX Blue Cash and i'm not eligible for the black card so it's not as if there are any better cards out there.