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Credit Card Solicitation to the Extreme

by Flexo on November 9, 2005

in Credit

While we’re on the topic of credit cards, this story was submitted to me by one of my biggest fans.

If you ride in elevators every day, like I do for my day job in a big corporate headquarters, then you’re familiar with the emergency telephone. The device is used in emergencies to call for help and presumably, rescuers might also use the phone to let those stuck that help is on the way.

Nathan Dungan, a “Family Finance Expert,” happened to be in a condominium elevator a few days ago when the phone rang. After it wouldn’t stop ringing, he picked up the handset out of curiosity. On the other end of the phone was a credit card telemarketer, soliciting a credit card.

Nathan wonders if the industry has become so desparate that there is a need to cold-call elevators to search for new customers, ready and willing to buy things they cannot afford and pay huge sums of money in credit card fees and interest.

You can opt out of solicitations like these, but there are no guarantees that opting out has any effect.

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About the Author

Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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{ 4 comments }

1 savvy saver November 9, 2005 at 12:05 pm

too funny! We had an elevator in my college dorm that had an emergency phone that would pick up the conversations of cordless phones in the building. You’d be in the elevator and all the sudden you’d hear the conversation of two friends trashing some guy, or a guy breaking up with his gf, or just someone ordering a pizza. It was a little unnerving at first, but after a while I starting looking forward to the eavesdropping.

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2 Caitlin November 9, 2005 at 7:12 pm

oh that is HI-larious

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3 Anonymous November 10, 2005 at 10:23 am

optoutprescreen.com does work. I used it myself. WSJ.com had an article about getting out off of mailing lists and phone lists. I tried their suggestions and it worked. I think I even printed that article out and sent it to everyone I know, because it does work and I wouldn’t tell people about it unless it did.

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4 Flexo November 10, 2005 at 11:35 am

Good to know that option has worked.

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