So you want to reduce the amount of unwanted marketing information you receive. What do you need to do?
Reduce unwanted marketing text messages
It’s illegal for organisations to send unwanted marketing text messages unless you have previously agreed to receive them.
You can avoid unwanted marketing text messages by:
- Carefully checking any information, small print and terms and conditions whenever you give out your mobile phone number.
- Tick the opt out box
If you are receiving unwanted text messages that you are being charged for, for example jokes, football messages or ringtones, you can seek advice about how to get them stopped at www.phonebrain.org.uk (this is the website for PhonepayPlus).
Reduce unwanted junk mail
Registering with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) helps you to choose the mail you want to receive.
Registering is free and it can remove your name from up to 95% of direct marketing mailing lists, but bear in mind that it will take up to four months for the service to take full effect.
Visit www.mpsonline.org.uk to register.
Some junk mail you receive might not have an address at all. You can reduce the amount of unaddressed mail you receive by registering with the Royal Mail’s door to door opt out service. Please note this will not stop mail addressed ‘to the occupier’.
Email: optout@royalmail.com
Reduce unwanted sales calls
By registering with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) you can reduce the amount of unwanted sales calls you receive. It is a legal requirement that organisations do not make calls to phone numbers registered through the TPS unless you have agreed to the calls.
The service is free and registering is easy. It becomes active 28 days from registering.
Visit www.tpsonline.org.uk to register.
Reducing spam
Spam is a marketing email you did not ask for or want. Most spam comes from outside the UK and we can only help with emails sent from within the EU. If you want to reduce the emails you receive from outside the EU, speak to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) for advice on buying spam filters or visit the spam page on our main website.
Take the following steps to help reduce spam:
- Be careful who you give your email address to.
- Choose an email address which is difficult to guess.
- Don’t advertise your email address. If you want people to contact you from a website, consider setting up a separate email address.
- When you give out your email address on a website or when filling in a form, consider opting out of receiving any marketing material you don’t want to receive.
→ How we can help