Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It occurred to me after I posted that some areas of the country may have few if any Medicare Advantage Plans offered. (They are authorized to operate by geographical area - counties or groups of counties). Here in Los Angeles County we have scads of them, so that is probably a large part of it.
Are you saying you get no advertising at all in the mail, not even for the supplemental plans (the ones which have letter designations)?
Yes I did that with AARP as well. Here's the catch though - if you move you are fair game again until you call and redo the do not send. I moved every couple years until recently and each time they somehow quickly found me and started mailing again.
I've had the same experience with AARP. Also Publisher's Clearing House! I swear those people have spies set on me! lol
Then you should fit right in! Since they don't get one from me I'd be happy to spring for your membership fee.
They don't get one from me either but they are still trying to recruit the lady who used to live here. She's been dead a year and I still get all kinds of mail for her AND her name is still inside my mailbox. I always say I have to go check "Virginia's mail" every day. When I bought the house I talked to her son, her daughter and the executor of her estate about the mail situation. All three said they'd get an address change in and none of them did, so I'm still getting "Virginia's mail". Anything that looked 'official' I forwarded to the executor and everything else gets trashed on my way into the house. It's ALL junk mail at this point but I really would like the USPS to take her name OUT of MY mailbox. Kind of like living with a ghost...
Actually, I think she WAS hanging around for a while after I moved in here. Odd things happening, etc.. Not so much now so I either met with her "approval" or she just got tired and left. lol
My H died in 2012 and he would have turned 65 this year. He has gotten literally bushel baskets full of healthcare information over the past 9 months or so. I go straight from the mailbox to the trashcan. I no longer even bring it in the house!
He's been dead for years and he gets more mail than anyone else here!
My H died in 2012 and he would have turned 65 this year. He has gotten literally bushel baskets full of healthcare information over the past 9 months or so. I go straight from the mailbox to the trashcan. I no longer even bring it in the house!
He's been dead for years and he gets more mail than anyone else here!
With a little work, you can stop all or most of the junk mail for a deceased person.
During my mom's last couple of years alive, we had all her mail sent to my house for handling. When she died I submitted the form at DMA.org to stop the junk mail. It took a few months but it eventually cut out most of it, including the medicare solicitations.
For the few things that kept coming, I opened the envelopes and if there was a return form of some sort, I wrote in big block letters with a sharpie: "Deceased, please remove from your mailing list" and sent it back. Most of the time, it was postage paid by the sender but for some I had to provide the stamp.
The DMA registration took care of most catalogs but there a couple for which I had to look closely at the inserts to find out how to remove her name from their list.
It took less than a year to stop it all. The hardest was the Salvation Army solicitations. Everytime I'd stop one "branch", another would come in under another "branch". I kept marking and returning them and they finally stopped but it left a bad taste in my mouth for the SA.
With a little work, you can stop all or most of the junk mail for a deceased person.
During my mom's last couple of years alive, we had all her mail sent to my house for handling. When she died I submitted the form at DMA.org to stop the junk mail. It took a few months but it eventually cut out most of it, including the medicare solicitations.
For the few things that kept coming, I opened the envelopes and if there was a return form of some sort, I wrote in big block letters with a sharpie: "Deceased, please remove from your mailing list" and sent it back. Most of the time, it was postage paid by the sender but for some I had to provide the stamp.
The DMA registration took care of most catalogs but there a couple for which I had to look closely at the inserts to find out how to remove her name from their list.
It took less than a year to stop it all. The hardest was the Salvation Army solicitations. Everytime I'd stop one "branch", another would come in under another "branch". I kept marking and returning them and they finally stopped but it left a bad taste in my mouth for the SA.
I think the only sure way of stopping all of that. Move and leave no forwarding address. I admire your hard work on this though.
Speaking of unsolicited connections. Has anyone ever got a phone call and caller ID has it as you calling yourself? I don't mean your cell calling home but home calling home?
I can relate to just about every complaint listed here thus far.
AARP started on me when I turned 50. I cannot recall a time when "retirement age" was 50. I just kept tossing their stuff. (My eldest son was sorely insulted when AARP "invited" him at 50) When I reached 75, I sent them a note explaining that after 25 years, they should be smart enough to figure out that if I had ignored them for a quarter of a century, I wasn't having any. They stopped.
I returned a post card requesting "our booklet" from a Medicare Advantage plan. When I got a phone call to "set up an appointment" I lost interest. The caller said that was how they did it. I told him that wasn't how I did it and I always get my way. The End.
I had originally carried traditional Medicare w/supplement but having heard much about the Advantage plans, I attended an informational meeting at a local hotel. We received written information and the presenter answered many Qs from the attendees. After careful consideration, and consulting with my "advisers", I switched. I've not been sorry.
It does pay to check out options because depending on your personal situation, one plan might be better than another for you, but one-on-one presentations are simply a way to strong-arm the elderly (and therefore assumed to be befuddled) into signing up.
So far, I've only received the Medicare & You and my Advantage plan literature. This year, my Advantage plan premium has reduced substantially and some of my co-pays have also gone down.
Yes I did that with AARP as well. Here's the catch though - if you move you are fair game again until you call and redo the do not send. I moved every couple years until recently and each time they somehow quickly found me and started mailing again.
Last time I moved I diligently filled out the new address card at the post office; all the other places who received my new address were perhaps bank, insurance, doctors, etc. No magazine subscriptions or such. Not more than a few weeks later I began receiving numerous junk mail from local businesses about my 'new address'. When I called, the ones who would tell me said that they obtained my new address info from direct marketing firms; and then said that the post office sells that information to those firms!
I asked the post office and the clerk did the 'deer in the headlights' and said, "Uh, have no idea." Next time I move I will definitely not let the post office know because anyone that needs to know I'll contact personally.
We save every piece of paper and cardboard; all spring, summer and fall. Winter is coming. I do not like making kindling.
Last winter we had so much saved paper / cardboard that it lasted all winter long.
We burned 3 1/2 cords of firewood and we did not use a single piece of kindling. We still have cardboard left-over from 2014.
It gets cold up here in Maine.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
