Junk mail removal services compared (including ours)

There are seven options worth knowing for cutting down junk mail, and none of them covers all of it, ours included. Two are registries, two are removal forms for coupon packs, and three are services that send opt-out requests to senders for you.

We make Ferna, so read this knowing that. We've tried to write the comparison we'd want to read ourselves: what each option costs, what it covers, and when something other than Ferna is the better pick, including when it's cheaper. Prices are as listed in October 2026.

Start with the two registries

1. OptOutPrescreen

• Covers: prescreened ("pre-approved") offers of credit and insurance, and nothing else.

Federal law backs this one. The four credit bureaus run it under the Fair Credit Reporting Act at OptOutPrescreen.com: five years online, or permanently if you print, sign, and mail the form it gives you. It doesn't stop offers from companies you already do business with.

Do this one whatever else you choose. We walk through it in how to stop prescreened credit card offers.

2. DMAchoice

• Cost: $8 online or $9 by mail, and it lasts ten years.
• Covers: prospect mail from the companies that use its list.

The Association of National Advertisers runs DMAchoice, a mail preference service: participating marketers drop you from the lists they use to find new customers. It's voluntary, not law: a company that doesn't use the list is under no legal obligation to.

It doesn't cover companies you've bought from, subscribed to, or donated to in the past two years. It doesn't cover prescreened credit and insurance offers either; those go through OptOutPrescreen. We cover the rest of its limits in is there a do-not-mail registry?

Two coupon packs with their own forms

3. Valpak

• Covers: Valpak's own coupon mailings, and nothing else.

Valpak runs its own removal form.

4. Save

• Covers: the Save coupon mailer, and nothing else.

Save has its own delivery options form, which tries to remove your address if it can match it to Save's database. Save says to allow up to six weeks, because its advertising is prepared in advance.

If either pack makes up a big share of your mailbox, start with these two forms.

Services that send the requests for you

5. Catalog Choice

• Cost: free. It's run by a nonprofit.
• Covers: catalogs and other junk mail from the senders you find on its site.

You search Catalog Choice for a sender, and it submits the opt-out request on your behalf. It says to expect 6–8 weeks before a sender's mail stops.

If catalogs are most of your junk mail and you don't mind doing the searching, start here before paying anyone, us included.

6. PaperKarma

• Cost: four free requests, then a subscription. Its yearly plan for unlimited requests is listed at $24.99 as an introductory price, regularly $34.99.
• Covers: mail from the senders you submit.

Mainly an app: you take a photo of a piece of junk mail, and PaperKarma identifies the sender and sends the opt-out request. Its website also has opt-out pages for the senders in its directory. Its yearly plan costs less than ours, at either price. It suits people who like dealing with mail the moment it arrives, phone in hand.

7. Ferna

• Cost: your first three requests are free. Then $4.99 a month for up to five requests a month, or $39.99 a year for unlimited requests.
• Covers: the senders you name, plus, on the annual plan, the credit bureaus' prescreened-offer opt-out in one click.

You type the name of a sender, with no photo needed. Ferna works out which opt-out route applies to that sender, sends an opt-out request to it on your behalf, and shows each sender's status in your dashboard. Either plan covers every name in your household.

Two things we'd point to: the bureau opt-out comes with the annual plan, and you can give Ferna as a gift, 12 months for $39.99, paid once, with nothing that renews. Two things against us: our yearly plan costs more than PaperKarma's, and the free options above do part of what we do.

Two more things to know

Mail addressed only to "Postal Customer", with no street address, is usually USPS Every Door Direct Mail, delivered to every address on a carrier route without names or addresses, so no registry covers it.

And if a sender keeps mailing after you've opted out, here's why that happens and what to do.

Which should you use?

• Everyone: OptOutPrescreen, which federal law backs, and DMAchoice for $8 online.
• Coupon packs: Valpak's and Save's own forms.
• Mostly catalogs, and you don't mind doing it yourself: Catalog Choice.
• Lots of different senders, and you'd rather it was done for you: PaperKarma if you'd like to photograph mail as it arrives and want the cheaper yearly plan; Ferna if you'd rather type your senders' names, or want the bureau opt-out included.

If Ferna sounds like the fit, your first three requests are free, which is enough to see whether it works on your mailbox before you pay us anything.