Follow up (Stop Sending Me Crap)

Well, you may remember that I went on a rant about H&R Block and how tricky it was to stop their junk mail (which I'm still not convinced; I'll believe it in 6 months).

It inspired me to get a little more aggressive with junk mail reduction. (I tend to do this roughly once a year.) It usually goes like this:

• Receive junk mail.
  
• Let junk mail pile up for months.
  
• Chuck it all in the recycling.

Now, though:

• Receive junk mail.
  
• Open junk mail and look for an appropriate number to call (or discontinue website! bonus points for Geico!)
  
• Chuck it in the recycling.

It's one simple step. It takes less than five minutes a day, AND it'll help long-term. Booyah.

The scorecard so far:

• Geico, yay for you for including an online discontinue option.
  
• Wells Fargo also gets a yay because they're actually doing a "go paperless" thing. If you go paperless statements, they enter you to win prize money (thousands of dollars here). (Little known to them, I'm looking to switch to a local credit union though.)
  
• Amica (my car insurance company) was sending me life insurance mailers. I called them up and I got help from the nicest old lady.
  
• Verizon, decent. No comment, but they did it.
  
• ING Direct. I've stopped receiving credit card offers (www.optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688)), but they've been mailing me savings account promotions. They get a gold star because I called at 8:50 in the morning and got helped by a guy who was really cute on the phone and made me laugh.

What?