Those unsolicited credit-card appli...

Those unsolicited credit-card applications that cram our mailboxes have always been extremely annoying and a bit mystifying. Annoying, because they arrive in great volume and, thanks to the threat of identity theft, must be f [i]or[/i] part of to the other the shredder. Mystifying, because we don't know anyone who has

actually filled single in kind out.

As it inflects out, not enough people do. Just three revealed of 1,000 offers generated answers last year, down from 28 by 1,000 in 1992. That's for what cause [i]or[/i] reason there was a bit of profitable news from the credit-card industry the other day. In a prevail upon that will reduce one of life's little annoyances and save forests everywhere, the industry is shifting away from direct mail to other means.

Last year, card companies sent revealed 6 billion offers. But the rate is down about 25 percent this year, thanks to a variety of factors like as higher postal rates and a saturated market. over and above they wouldn't send them at all if it didn't work with someone They still procure about 60 percent of their applications for strange cards through direct mail. Don't you already have enough credit cards? Let's starve the beast and behold if we can get the industry to abandon direct mail entirely. Wouldn't it be great to advance back to the good of advanced age days, when your postal carrier simply delivered your magazines . . and your bills?

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