The recession has done one thing most of us are glad to see: Cut back on the number of credit card offers that we get in the mail. The number of direct mail offers sent by financial services companies fell by more than one-quarter in 2008, according to a study by the Mintel marketing intelligence firm.
The credit card companies still sent 5.4 billion pieces, and if your household income is more than $100,000 a year, you didn’t see that much of a drop — only about one percent. But households making $50,000 or less saw a 42 percent decrease.
And have any of us ever had it this badly? A suburban Chicago man kept track of all the offers he received from November 2007 to October 2008. They totaled 445 (weighing 23 pounds), including offers for his 11- and 8-year-old sons.
