Opt Out of Credit & Loan Offers

Your Privacy (and Lack Thereof)

When applying for a pre-approval or a loan, banks and lenders are required to collect a lot of information about you. This makes sense, since they're about to loan you hundreds of thousands of dollars! What doesn't make sense is that they're allowed to then share the fact that you are looking for a loan with third parties who also want to give you a loan, a new credit card or whatever else.

While the lending officer themselves takes no part in this, the fact remains that you will begin to receive lots of offers in the mail during your home search from many different companies, banks and services. Once you buy a home you'll get lots of mail as well; scams trying to tell you to insure your deed (don't do this!), people that want to clean your chimney (a good idea for any new home!), landscapers and even banks that are ready to help you refinance your brand new mortgage.

While you can't stop it all, you can at least stop some of it by submitting your application at the FTC's Opt-Out website OptOutPrescreen.com. Sadly most important government websites look sketchy but if you're worried, just go to https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-stop-junk-mail and see for yourself that it's the official site.

The benefit of doing this before you pre-approval is that if you decide to shop around for other loans, the lender you made your first application with won't get pinged when you do so. 

Stay safe out there and if you ever get a call, email or letter about a property you just bought and you're unsure if it's real - give me a call! I'd be happy to help you sift the scams from the real service providers.