How to get some revenge on the credit companies

If you are like me, you receive pre-approved credit card applications in the mail... All the time... Every day. These credit applications promise super-low credit for a limited time only. We are all well aware that sooner or later the super low credit gets replaced by arm-and-leg credit (usually more sooner than later). The cost for credit companies to mass mail these applications is minimal to the amount of revenue that they get in return from people who actually fill these things out, return them, and then max out the cards on chocolate and potted meat. Even the people who are too smart to fill them out have to deal with the guilt of throwing these things away and crying over the amount of trees that died for our credit sins. All in all, the credit companies have nothing to lose. It's a win-win situation for these companies and a lose-lose situation for the masses. Yet, as I have discovered, there is a way to turn this around on the credit companies so that not only do they have to pay DOUBLE POSTAGE for these things, they in turn have to deal with all the environmental guilt of pitching them in the trash. This process was first demonstrated to me by my sister-in-law. It is so common-sense-spiteful, that I am ashamed for not figuring it out myself. Individually, all this will do is offer a brief amount of satisfaction. Yet in mass, this will be a real pain to the credit companies.

Step 1 Collecting credit applications.

This is the easiest part of this process. As a matter of fact, credit companies take care of it for you. All you need to do is get your mail.

Comments

[drbill]

Glad to see more people doing this. I been doin' it for years now with all junk mail I can.

[Advar]

Ditto. Plus, once I asked for MORE junk because I used it for wallpaper. Four years free from them and counting! :)

[VincentDA]

Why have I not thought of this? All this time I've been throwing them out and mumbling at the garbage pale in disgust. You sir, just gave me a new hobby, and for that, I thank you.

[Amnesia Wes]

The companies that send you return mail envelopes, make an agreement with the Post Office to pay for the return postage. However, they HAVE TO pay for it, regardless of it's content, so the best thing to do is tape the envelope to the outside of a brick and drop it in a mail-drop box. This way, the company has to pay for a lot more for this mail since its weight makes the cost way more than just an envelope with pieces of paper in it! What this means is instead of just $.41 for the envelope, your 'brick' now costs them $8.10, EVERY time they receive a brick taped to the envelope! And if you leave your name on the paperwork, they will stop sending you those 'pre-approved' applications, 'cause now it costs them money!

[jongscx]

Now, in my area, each brick costs approximately $.58. Now, assuming I get 2 pieces of unsolicited return mail/business day, that's 10/wk, 520/yr... so that's 520 bricks or $301.60 per year that I spend on bricks alone.

Now, each brick is approximately 2-3 kg, abour 5lb. so that's about 2600lbs or 2.6 tons of brick that I need to haul from my local home depot. The home depot is on average 10 miles. An average pickup (F-150) has a towing capacity of about 2000lbs stock, so that's between 1-2 trips at approximately 8-12mpg. At the current gas price of $4/gallon, that's coming out to $16 in gas.

Doing some quick experiments, I can constantly move 2 bricks from my truck in the driveway to the back yard in 2 minutes. For all 520, that's about 17 hrs non-stop. If you paid me the minimum wage for a daily laborer ($6.50/hr) that comes out to $110.5

Now, for that effort, using a calorie calculator for an average-sized male, doing medium-strenuous gardenning, those 17 hrs of effort come to around 7560 calories. Assuming that an average meal or 2000/3=666.7 Cal costs $5.00, that's 11 meals or $55 in food.

So total comes out to:
$301.60(bricks) + $16 (gas) + $110.5 (labor) + $55 (food) = $483.10....

and I even forgot to factor in the tape...

[sjb321]

Or! you could just send them some old bricks that you find or some dirt in a bag.

[twiztedreams]

lol!! Too funny

[raukorist77]

ROFL XD

[flove101]

....and you forgot the whole can of worms that are economic opportunity costs... associated with the CC company vendetta as well...

[Amnesia Wes]

Where'd you find the time to take off your CPA job, to do all this deducifying??? You're right, in your case, it wouldn't be worth the effort. But for the rest of us, who aren't 'tools' of the establishment, it'd be fun screwing with corporate America...

[jongscx]

Actually wes, I did that between calculus problems while doing my homework... took all of 20 minutes and wikipedia...

[blackfister]

I once applyed for a card on a petrol station, they offered me a credit card based on the points I had by fuelling on their stations, so I filled the appilcation under the name Kaizer Zose, and I got it, (Kaizer zose: killer in a movie).

[aeray]

Who is Kaiser Zose?

[DangerArt]

Keyser Söze (pronounced /ÈkajzYr ÈsoŠzej/ KYE-zYr SOH-zay) is a fictional character in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects, written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. Söze is an underworld kingpin whose ruthlessness and influence have acquired a legendary, and even mythical, status among law enforcement agents and criminals alike. By the end of the film, the viewer is led to believe that Roger "Verbal" Kint, is Söze. The character was named the #48 villain in the American Film Institute's "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains" in June 2003

[aeray]

"Who is Kaiser Soze ?" = Joke. But thanks for the elucidation (and I'm sure many younger readers appreciate the info).

[DangerArt]

Yeah, I knew it was a joke. I just like copying and pasting from wikipedia. :-)

[Buzzinski]

Just gather enough other junk email to stick in the envelope. Don't send theirs back, send it to the next company that sends you a reply paid envelope. It keeps the people who open the mail ammused, costs nothing to you and is a bit of harmless protest at the same time. I have sent bumf from a credit card company to a funeral plan company, swimming pool supply cataloges to a credit card company etc. 

[bennagels]

Why not attach the return envelope to a brick? Make them pay even more shipping costs!

[Jeido]

My dad used to do that every time he got one of these letters. Safe to say he doesn't receive them any more.  :)

[kachup]

I'd like to try this but credit cards companies have stopped this practice, rpobably something to do with the credit crunch!

[hammer9876]

I used to do this!

[olly1361]

I know a way that you can annoy them even more. Copy the address on a new envolope and pots it to them. They will have to pay a premium postage rate for the letter. This not only costs them money but it also costs them time

[Nintendo_Expedition]

I like the way you think. Enough credit card companies jerking us around, La Resistance!

[Landon Sullivan]

Couldn't you just add a lot of heavy materials to the envelope?

[altomic]

I live in Australia -The land of the Brie - anyway when people are declaring bankruptcy the usually put an advertisement in the legal notice of a major newspaper. Something akin to "I John Smith make formal notice of my legal seperation from ABC Company....etc". This is meant to be a binding legal notice open to the public and basically if john smith comes into your shop and wants to buy a ferrari using a company cheque book for ABC Company you would tell him to piss off.(mainly because you sell shoes). But anyway that's the jist of it. Though it may have changed in recent years. I'm talking about the old days -when old people were respected, etc. My plan was to put an ad in the legal section saying something like "I Fred SMith (no relation to John) of 1 Main st Bigtown, will charge companies and businesses a disposal fee of $10 for each piece of unwanted advertising material, etc" you get the drift. Then when the junk arrives in your letter box start sending out letters stating the notice details in the paper at date XX/XX/200X and include a bill for $10 asking for prompt payment otherwise there are penalty rates if not paid in X days. Keep a record. keep sending more letter+accounts. keep sending reminders. who knows maybe someone will pay. I think it was douglas adams who had a character in the Hitchhikers trilogy (yeah, i know it was 4 books) whose job was to send bills for sending bills. fantastic. or maybe I'm just full of it. Bye

[Rotten194]

5 books, I think, and glad to meet a fellow fan. God idea, though I would just mail the notice back to them, in the envelope.

[RedFlash]

Australia? Where abouts and what state? I'm in Queensland...

[matt_sawyers]

ROFL. That's really hilarious It would be great to make a huge thing out of it...website and all. and see what happens.

[SickofSnow]

No one has mentioned that this practice is against the law. Its called "mail fraud", and you could be prosecuted. The United States Postal Service is not to be considered a public venue for our junk mail protests. To avoid any traceable evidence, you need to cut out ALL references to your identity. These include bar codes, company codes, your name and address, the application number, etc. Cut these out before mailing back, or you could end up being the poster boy for mail fraud: What Not To Do to the USPS!

[detox]

You are going to have to provide a reference to the section of law that you are referring too. If it was illegal to mail junk to people we wouldn't have this problem in the first place.

[SickofSnow]

Ya know, Detox, I have spent 2 hours searching for the applicable law, and I couldn't find it! So you are probably right, and I am wrong. I had always heard this was illegal, but I cannot prove it. However, it sort of does seem to be like "stealing", because one is spending the sender's postage for purposes other than intended by sender.

Also, I did learn a few things in my search. For example, stuffing the envelope with heavy contents to make them pay more postage, I don't think that works. Here's the applicable law under
United States Postal Service's Domestic Mail Manual: http://pe.usps.gov/text/DMM300/508.htm

While doing my search, I came across countless forums with folks all talking about, and doing, the same thing!! Apparently, returning junk mail to sender is quite common! Maybe we'll actually get somewhere on this! Thanks for your post.

[snowyzn]

I would so send all the junk mail I get and send it to them.

[tunafish]

It is only illegal if you send them something harmful. Sending their cr4p back to them is NOT illegal. If you are afraid of it, then just write "Return to Sender" on the letter and mail it back.

[georion]

Post office does not return mail that is not "first class" ==The Post office Trashes that mail.--go ahead and ask.

[jany]

Don't you think that in the end, it will cost us because they tack on extra fees to recover lost postage. There has to be another way.

[recon506]

Bolding your entire reply was completely unnecessary/ (Just a suggestion)

[gardenwife]

This method is hardly getting revenge. As others have mentioned, it only makes their costs go up and they pass the costs along to their customers. Besides, a lot of people depend on junk mail for their livelihood -- from the publishers and programmers who create and personalize the pieces to those who print them, to the postal workers who deliver them. If you don't want the offers, opt out using one of the services available online. Otherwise, just throw it out or recycle the stuff. My husband's a programmer for a printing company that does a lot of direct mail pieces and your junk is our survival.

[sugarego]

okay, i understand how hard it is to lose a job, but that is not justification for what is being done. i'm sorry, but the world has to change, or we are all going to die after being subjected to lots of illness and suffering. there are a ton of industries that will have to come to an end for us to live sustainably. direct mail advertising is one of those industries that really has no business existing. and if you think that the survival of those employed by this industry is important, then you cannot neglect the survival of the rest of us, either. maybe we need a more flexible country to allow people to more easily survive industry changes and layoffs, and that's not your fault, but you cannot defend the business of needlessly killing trees, creating dioxin (from bleaching the cellulose) that pollutes the water we all drink, and expends carbon to manufacture and deliver, as well as dispose of and recycle. the only way humans will survive on this planet at all is when we stop defending practices that are terrible for the planet just because they're temporarily beneficial to ourselves.

[island_hackster]

Well said. Thank you. Her plea made me sick. (But I do think it 's better to just opt out. I don't believe the "revenge" will result in anything but negativity.)

[recon506]

Negativity is the lifeblood of our modern society. Int he spirit of this -ible I say fight fire with fire.