Good afternoon Friendly, We had to redirect our parents’ mail to one of my siblings after my father was lured to a car dealership with one of those “$1000 fake checks to be used toward the purchase of a new car” advertisement. He bought a truck which he could not afford and we had to get a lawyer to make them take it back. It was shortly after this that we had to take control of their finances too. I’m sure my parents had to sign to allow the redirection of mail, but they did it.
FriendlyNE, I found once I had the Post Office transfer my Dad's mail over to my house, hardly any junk mail followed. Usually the Post Office will throw away 3rd Class mail so that is one reason why there aren't any catalogs or asking for donations. After almost 2 years, still no junk mail... YEAH \o/
I had to transfer the mail because my Dad was throwing away current bills... he thought the bills were junk mail.... nice wishing :) I was able to go on-line to have the mail re-directed, it cost $1, what a deal.
I would redirect it to your house. You can easily throw away the junk and give mom the real mail. You have to fill out a change of address card at the post office putting your address on it. It needs her signature at the bottom. How you go about getting that is your business. I would doubt if they have time to check every signature that is written.
Good suggestions but this is what I did. If the junk mail included a return envelope, I sent everything back in it. Circled Moms name and wrote "take me off your mailing list". If no envelope went on the internet. Don't subscribe to any magazines. They sell names. Contact catalog services and ask they be stopped and name taken off mailing list. They sell names to. Do not fill out any contests, you know like a free trip or car at the Mall. Every time I did this I started getting junk mail. Moms junk mail is pretty much gone.
I like the first 2 answers - I was going to suggest a Post Office Box and you can dump anything you don't want into their garbage cans. But getting the mail forwarded would be cheaper :)
Someone always picks up my Mom's mail, so we took to sorting it in advance and just not turning over any catalogs (her problem was ordering from catalogs, not falling from scams). Try to get to the mailbox before she does. There's also a service (I think it's called Catalog Choice) where you can submit names of catalogs you want to be discontinued from. I don't know if there's anything similar for junk mail though.
I have sent back the flyer and marked the "take me off your mailing list" box. If it does not have a box like that, call the company and tell them you would like your name taken off the mailing list. Sometimes they have to put your call through to another dept or give you another phone # to call.
I agree with Treeartist and Freqflier. Having the mail sent to your home would only fill up your garbage can and not empty your moms wallet. When you donate to these organizations?, you are put on a list and thus more mailings asking for money. Stay well and the best to you and your mom.
I collected all my mother in law's junk mail and donation requests and contacted as many as I could, through e-mail or writing letters, or simply writing "please remove from mailing list" on the solicitation and returning it in the prepaid envelope many of them provide. I also went to various direct mail websites and opted her out of as many lists as I could. This drastically reduced her mailings, but be forewarned that it takes up to 3 months in some instances to stop all mailings from some places, and if your mother donates to them in the meantime, she goes right back on the list. You have to be diligent.
In my own situation, if it were up to me, I would redirect my MIL's mail to a PO Box or to our home address, but my wife has resisted this change as her mother is able to take care of herself for the most part, despite her dementia. Most of the time, anything she gets and has questions about, she sets them aside to have my wife or me look at them. However, just last month, she got suckered into a $4K extended warranty (with a $495 down payment) on an 8 year old car with 17K miles. Fortunately we got it canceled and the down payment refunded. But it's getting to the point where more active intervention is necessary.
My advice is to contact any and every place that sends stuff to your mother and have her removed, and if you need to, reroute the rest to your own home or a PO box.
I had a similar issue with my Mom. We didn’t realize how bad it was until my dad died and I started paying the bills for her. She wouldn’t stop! By the time I figured out what was going on, she had “donated” over $38,000! I rented a P.O. Box for her (and didn’t give her a key). Another thing that was helpful was to download an app called PaperKarma. It still took over a year to get it all stopped.
We had to redirect our parents’ mail to one of my siblings after my father was lured to a car dealership with one of those “$1000 fake checks to be used toward the purchase of a new car” advertisement. He bought a truck which he could not afford and we had to get a lawyer to make them take it back. It was shortly after this that we had to take control of their finances too. I’m sure my parents had to sign to allow the redirection of mail, but they did it.
I had to transfer the mail because my Dad was throwing away current bills... he thought the bills were junk mail.... nice wishing :) I was able to go on-line to have the mail re-directed, it cost $1, what a deal.
You have to fill out a change of address card at the post office putting your address on it. It needs her signature at the bottom. How you go about getting that is your business.
I would doubt if they have time to check every signature that is written.
In my own situation, if it were up to me, I would redirect my MIL's mail to a PO Box or to our home address, but my wife has resisted this change as her mother is able to take care of herself for the most part, despite her dementia. Most of the time, anything she gets and has questions about, she sets them aside to have my wife or me look at them. However, just last month, she got suckered into a $4K extended warranty (with a $495 down payment) on an 8 year old car with 17K miles. Fortunately we got it canceled and the down payment refunded. But it's getting to the point where more active intervention is necessary.
My advice is to contact any and every place that sends stuff to your mother and have her removed, and if you need to, reroute the rest to your own home or a PO box.
I rented a P.O. Box for her (and didn’t give her a key). Another thing that was helpful was to download an app called PaperKarma. It still took over a year to get it all stopped.
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