By way of a survey research experiment, Messer and Dillman (2011) theorized that an illustrated, explanatory “Web card” would increase Web response rates when stimulating survey participation via postal mail. While those authors found no such effect, the Web cards in their experiment were generic for all respondents. As personalization of a survey invitation tends to increase response, we theorized that personalization of the Web card would increase its efficacy. We embedded an experiment in an Internet survey driven by address-based sampling mail contacting. The sample (N=8,000), geographically centered around eight train-stations, was divided into three categories: no Web card; generic Web card; and, personalized Web card, i.e., preprinted with the respondent’s Internet survey passcode. Hypothesizing no effect for the “no card” and “generic card” respondents, we anticipated a response rate boost for the personalized Web cards. We found no effect in the proportion of Internet and mail response; however, while we found no effect on overall survey response in the “no card” and “personalized card” categories, we found a noticeable response suppression effect in the “generic card” category (N=6,938; chi2=4.74, p=0.029). An inferential logit model controlled for 1) whether the invitation letter, per se, was personalized; 2) nature of the housing unit; and 3) geography. We found, as now expected from the bivariate analysis, no effect from the personalized card (OR=1.01; p=0.858). All of the other controls were statistically significant and performed as expected (for e.g., for a personalized invitation letter, OR=2.65; p=0.000). The important empirical finding is that even under these controlled conditions, the generic Web card still suppressed survey response (OR=0.87; p=0.050).The instructive lessons for survey researchers are to not waste valuable survey resources on Web cards, whether personalized or not, and that there is a demonstrable risk that using Web cards may actually suppress survey response.