How to Sign Up for Credit Card Offers in the Mail
Consumers receive credit card offers through direct mail on a fairly regular basis. According to CreditRatings.com, credit card companies mailed a record 6 billion mail solicitations in 2005 alone to US households, which averages to about 20 offers per 30 million Americans.
Your offer to apply for a credit card may be sent from a bank you do business with, from a credit card company that obtained your information from a mailing list or from a business that you ordered from in the past. If you are new to credit cards, you may be wondering how to respond to all these offers.
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Instructions
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Open the offer and verify that the personal information on the offer is correct. Carefully review your name, address and any other personal facts that are listed. Credit card companies are reluctant to make changes to personal information, but if you don't correct misinformation, you could end up with a credit card that has your name misspelled. Having a misspelled name or transposed first and middle name could cause problems in the future, including difficulty verifying your identity in stores or in other situations where the name on your card will be checked against the name on your driver's license.
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Fill out the credit card application and mail it to the credit card company. You will need to complete the information as accurately as possible, filling in every blank as requested. Information you could be asked for include your date of birth, social security number and previous address history, as well as where you have checking and savings accounts. You will also need to indicate your income source, name of employer, contact information and monthly or yearly income.
After the application is completed, you will need to mail the paperwork back to the credit card company, usually in a prepaid envelope.
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Respond online to credit card offers received in the mail. In lieu of filling out a paper application and mailing the form to the credit card company, some creditors offer an option to apply online. The same basic information will be requested; it will just be entered into an online form instead of a hard copy. In many cases, you will receive an immediate notice telling you if you've been approved or rejected.
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Tips & Warnings
Apply online for instant approval and possibly a temporary card number for immediate online use.
Make sure to review interest rates, application fees and processing fees prior to sending in your application.
Beware of responding to credit card offers until you have verified that the company offering you the credit card is a legitimate business that will keep your information confidential.
