How to stop junk mail in the UK

Marketing from a company that already writes to you

You can tell any company to stop using your details for direct marketing. The Information Commissioner's Office says that right has no exemptions, and companies have a month to respond. Write to the company's data protection team, include any reference printed on the post, and ask them to stop and to delete your details for marketing.

Dear Sender does this for you. Snap the post, and Robin, your AI agent, tracks down who sent it and sends the request.

Marketing from companies you haven't heard from yet

Register with the Mailing Preference Service. It's free and cuts addressed marketing from companies you haven't dealt with. It can take up to three months to take full effect.

Leaflets and catalogues with no name or address

These often go to every home in an area. Royal Mail's door-to-door opt-out stops the ones Royal Mail delivers: it takes a signed form and lasts two years. For the rest, ask the company to stop delivering to your address.

Robin can ask them for you. It gives the company your address so they can stop, but never your name.

Post for "The Occupier"

Post addressed to "The Occupier" or "The Resident" is sent to an address rather than a person. Ask the company to take your address off their mailing list.

Robin writes for "the current occupier", so the company doesn't learn your name.

Post for someone who doesn't live with you

If it's for a previous occupant or a name you don't know, you can write "Not known at this address", or "Moved away" if they've moved out, on the envelope and put it back in a postbox. That deals with one letter, but more may follow if the sender's records stay the same.

Robin tells the sender to update their records, so it stops at the source. Your name stays out of it.