American consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet instead of their mailboxes for credit card offers. Tarrytown, NY-based BAIGlobal reported this morning that U.S. card issuers dumped 2.87 billion solicitations in the mail last year. However the research firm says as the number of direct mail solicitations has gone up, the response rates have declined. Last year consumers responded to a mere 1% of credit card solicitations, a ten-year low. Credit card solicitations reached an all-time peak in 1998, hitting 3.45 billion direct mail pieces. The slowdown in the number of last year's mailing is directly linked to First USA's pullback. Bank One/First USA began pulling back its direct mail offerings in the third and fourth quarter as a result of an attrition problem which surfaced in the second quarter. The future for credit card marketing lies with the Internet. BAI says the number of households responding to online card offers quadrupled between the fourth quarter 1998 and fourth quarter 1999.