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Dismissing Your Credit Card Mail
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1. You may miss out on something good.
Your credit card issuer sends special offers by mail consistently, unless of course, you've requested removal from their solicitation list. These offers may include promotions such as low balance transfer offers, automatic credit line increase notifications, and even bonus rewards or statement credits. Why would you want to miss out on these opportunities?
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2. You may get locked into account terms that you did not expect.
Banks send change in terms notices right to your mail box. These change in terms can affect the cost of fees on your credit card, even the cost of your annual percentage rate. Also some notices will even change the manner in which your minimum due is calculated.
You are given the right to reject a change in terms, but you can't reject them if you throw your credit card mail in the trash. If you don't see it, you'll be locked into the new terms and good luck getting out of them.
3. You may receive a negative option solicitation switching your account brand.
What is a negative option solicitation? A negative option requires that you call your credit card issuer to opt out of a specific change to your account. Most of the time this change is in card brand. For example, going from a Visa to a MasterCard. If you throw this option away, you'll be stuck with a new brand of credit card that you may not have been expecting.
4. You may have received credit cards that you were not expecting.
This is more of a security risk than anything. If you don't open your mail and just trash it, you may throw away replacement cards that were automatically sent to you by your credit card issuer. New cards are sent automatically, in most cases, when your old ones are about to expire. Dumpster divers look frequently through peoples trash for this specific scenario. Avoid fraud by opening your credit card mail.
5. You may receive balance transfer or cash convenience checks.
Credit card issuers may send you balance transfer or cash convenience checks without any notification to you. These usually come in solo mailings and are not always apparent at quick glance. If you throw these away, it may turn into another case of fraud if someone is going through your trash.
One other type of credit card mailing to watch out for is checks for small dollar amounts. Your credit card issuer probably offers third party programs to you. One way to get you to enroll is by giving you free money! You might receive small check amounts, I've seen them anywhere from $3.00 up to $15.00. If you cash these checks, you're automatically enrolled in some program that you might have no interest in.
Avoid the above scenarios by always opening your credit card mail. This will ensure nothing unexpected happens to you. It will only take a minute or two of your time, if it's not something you want or need, shred it.
