Typically, you are given a predetermined amount of credit that may be available if you sign the credit application and return it to the grantor by a specific date.

What happens behind the scene before these applications arrive in your mailbox? Credit grantors or marketers use credit reporting agencies prescreening services to invite you to accept offers of credit. Credit grantors provide credit reporting agencies with a list of names and a set of credit qualifying criteria. The information is used to match the criteria against the list of names to develop a new list of consumers who qualify for the particular credit offer. The actual information in your credit report is not given to the credit grantor.

If you would like to stop receiving pre-approved offers of credit, call the Opt Out Request line at 1-888-567-8688. Be prepared to give personal information such as your name and mailing address and the length of time you want the preapproved offers stopped--two years or permanently.