After peaking in June with nearly 375 million new direct mail offers, mail volume has declined each month since, settling at a year-to-date low of 297 million acquisition pieces in September, according to a recent report by Mintel Comperemedia.

"While the overall volume of direct mail offers may have declined, consumer response rates and attitudes have stayed the same since the first of the year," said Rob Cartwright, manager of Comperemedia research.

Although 50% of consumers say they ignore all new credit card mailings, Comperemedia reported that overall credit card response rates remain steady at 0.8% to 1.0%. Offers and incentives in such offers varied during the quarter. According to the report, the percentage of offers that promoted interest rates of 8% or higher increased from 58% in July to over 75% in September.