[iPhone] Is your mailbox at home packed with junk mail? MailStop Mobile can help you get rid of it!

Are you absolutely tired of getting tons of junk mail every single day? Do you wish that you could somehow stop these companies from sending the same marketing clutter every week? Well that is where the website Catalog Choice can help you. Think of it as the Do Not Call List for your mailbox. If ridding your mailbox of junk mail interests you or you just want to save some trees, then try Catalog Choice’s iPhone companion MailStop Mobile.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

MailStop Mobile is an iPhone companion for the Catalog Choice website that allows you to opt-out of various junk mail and unwanted catalogs.

Pros

Attractive UI and easy to use
Allows you quickly upload photos of opt-out choices
You are given 3 photos to grab all requested information
You are able to share your opt-out choices on Facebook and/or Twitter

Cons

You cannot view your opt-out choices in the app itself

Discussion

Catalog Choice was launched in 2007 as an online mail preference service. Since then it has expanded to a multifaceted service dedicated to identity protection, privacy, and junk mail reduction. Several of its services are paid, but we are going to concentrate on its free service that aims to reduce your unwanted mail.

MailStop Mobile provides a simple and clean interface for the uploading of unwanted mail to Catalog Choice’s website. After signing up for a free account, all you need to do is take a photo of the mailing label, sender name, and customer number (if applicable) on any unwanted mail or catalog. Sometimes it will take only one photo to encompass all three entities, but MailStop Mobile provides the option of using 3 separate photo uploads if all the information is scattered around.

Once a photo has been sent, Catalog Choice sends requests to those specific companies to stop sending the unwanted mail. There is a list of your requests on their Web page as well as the current status. If they make contact in 90 days, it will say confirmed and you can expect your mail from them to stop. If not, then you will see an unconfirmed designation. By my short experience using the service, the results seemed hit or miss, but in reality any hit is less clutter in your mailbox.

The one thing I was missing from MailStop Mobile is the ability to see your request statuses on the actual iPhone itself. At the current time only the Web site allows you to see the requests. Also, according to previous reviewers on the iTunes site, there have been some uploading issues, but there was a recent update to fix those problems and my uploads went through fine.

It is worth noting that Catalog Choice also has a Firefox add-on that allows you to opt-out when you are providing your personal information for online purchases. It can be downloaded here. The company also provides much more aggressive junk mail reduction plans that are paid.