The Mailing Preference Service (MPS) is a free register that catalogue retailers and other direct mail companies check before sending you addressed post. Registering removes your name and address from the lists that subscribing companies use to plan future mailings, though it does not touch email marketing, unaddressed mail pushed through the door without your name on it, or anything already in production when you sign up. Not every company checks the MPS list, and MPS itself has no power to fine or force compliance, so registering reduces addressed post.

What you need before you start

Registration takes your full name and the postal address you want removed from mailing lists, including the postcode. If you have recently moved, you can also register the address you have left, which stops catalogues still arriving for you there. There is no charge at any point, and MPS never asks for payment card details.

1. Go to mpsonline.org.uk and choose the option to register as an individual.
2. Enter your name and the full address, including postcode, that you want removed from mailing lists.
3. State whether the registration covers you alone or everyone at that address.
4. Submit the form. Registration is free and does not require any payment details.
5. Keep the confirmation reference you are given, in case you need to query the registration later.

How long it takes for catalogues to stop

The registration itself is processed quickly, but the effect on your post is not immediate. MPS distributes an updated suppression list to subscribing companies on a periodic basis, and each company then has to apply that list to its own mailing database before its next print run goes out. In practice, addressed catalogues can keep arriving for a period after you register, commonly cited as up to four months, before the suppression takes effect. This reflects the position at mpsonline.org.uk as of January 2025; check the site directly for the current suppression timetable, since it can change.

What keeps arriving anyway

Mail already committed to a print run before your registration date will usually still arrive, because the retailer's mailing list was locked in before the suppression update reached it. A company that does not subscribe to MPS at all is not bound by it, so a catalogue account you hold directly with a retailer will keep generating statements and marketing until you ask that retailer separately to stop. Unaddressed mail, delivered without your name on it, sits outside MPS entirely and needs a different approach, covered in the guide on stopping unwanted catalogues and marketing post.

If catalogues keep arriving after the suppression period

1. Check the mailing against your MPS confirmation reference, to be sure the address registered matches the one receiving the post.
2. Contact the sender directly, using the phone number or email printed on the catalogue, and ask it to remove your details under your right to object to direct marketing (part of UK GDPR).
3. If the mail continues after that request, raise it with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which enforces the direct marketing code that MPS-subscribing companies are expected to follow.

The rules a mailing company itself has to follow when sending catalogue post, including what counts as a lawful basis for keeping your address on file, are set out in the guide on mailing a catalogue legally.