Illegitimate Credit Pulls From Lender
I applied for a mortgage with the lending arm of a builder to purchase a new home. I applied over the phone and gave the loan officer permission to pull my credit. Weeks later, the loan officer came back and stated that the loan parameters had changed.
I rejected this and elected not to purchase the loan. Over the past four weeks, this company has continuously checked my credit report. I have sent numerous e-mails to this company but have received no replies.
How does one dispute these illegitimate credit checks? I gave them permission to pull my credit once but never gave them permission for multiple credit pulls.
Any ideas?
JS
just dispute them as duplicates w/ the 3 CRAs. You authorized 1 pull not 5.
There are two categories of inquiries. The first is voluntary. A voluntary inquiry is one where you have given a credit issuer permission to pull you credit report. A voluntary inquiry may reduce your FICO score up to six points for each pull. However, if you are shopping for a loan, and you have several voluntary inquiries for the same reason all within a short period of time, the FICO scoring process will aggregarte all these inquiries into one and count them all as only one voluntary inquiry.
Inquiries you make yourself to pull your own credit report are not counted against your FICO score.
The second category is the involuntary inquiry. An involuntary inquiry occurs when a credit issuer has requested your score or credit report in order to make you a pre-approved credit offer. These inquiries occur without your permission, and often from credit issuers with whom you have already established a relationship.
You may get ten or more credit card offers in the mail every month. Some will be from a credit card issuer for a card you already hold, but offer low or zero interest balance transfers. Each one of these offers represents at least one credit pull. Rest assured that each one of these is an involuntary inquiry and does not affect your FICO score.
If your credit report distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary inquiries, then you may have a dispute if all the inquiries from that lender are in the voluntary category.
You also need to recognize that when you give the lender permission to pull your credit when you apply for a loan, you are giving the lender permission for as many pulls as is needed to approve your loan and issue a loan commitment. For example, the lender will pull credit when you make your intitial application to see what range of loan programs and interest rate you may be eligible for.
If the lender takes 30-40 days to process your loan application, then the lender will pull your credit again prior to issuing a loan commitment letter just to make sure that there have been no significant changes in your financial status that would adversely affect your creditworthiness. If you change the loan program, you may be subject to another voluntary inquiry.
My point is that you did not authorize the lender to pull your credit only once, you authorized them to pull your credit as often as necessary to give you a loan.
[ Edited by NewKidInTown3 on Date 08/15/2007 ]
Newkid,
I gave them permission over the phone to check my report. They nevr approved me for the loan because two weeks later they came back with a change in fee structure that I rejected.
This was all over six weeks ago. I never signed a credit authorization yet they pulled my report again every week for the last three weeks. I am not sure if these credit pulls are automatic or if someone is pulling these reports but I di no authorize them.
I have disputed the inquiries (which show up under voluntary) with the bureaus but I also wanted to know where I report violations of the FCRA. How can I get these people to take responsibility for their actions? Any ideas?
Thanks,
JS.
it depends on what entiry type (credit union, bank, S&L) as to who regulates them. You can call the main number and ask.
www.ftc.gov has a web for FCRA as I recall.
Quote:
On 2007-08-16 03:59, smithj2 wrote:,
I gave them permission over the phone to check my report. They nevr approved me for the loan because two weeks later they came back with a change in fee structure that I rejected.Just so we are clear, did you withdraw your loan application, or just reject their proposal? I wonder if the lender believes that they are still working an active loan application that may fit a product that you will eventually accept.
Very good post here. Just being the type of person I am I would like to also read and verify some of the info. Is that one form of Due Diligence? Would those who made post on this site concerning the credit nightmare please post locations where I may go and read – look at the newest info on how credit scores are manipulated by lenders. Maybe the word ‘manipulated’ is not quiet right but you get the idea.
Thanks