Did you know that credit card companies can make inquiries without your permission?

[cynatnite]

We didn't know that these companies could make inquiries on our credit record without our knowledge and permission. When we discovered that husband's credit was merged with someone else's we began working to fix the problem. We discovered inquiries had been made from companies like Capital One and Citigroup and we had no idea. This was all on our credit report, too.

What do you make of this?

[T Wolf]

1. They have the power (and the powerful) on their side. You have no rights. The only solution is to

minimize your interaction with them - only use credit cards when absolutely necessary.

Starve the beast.

added - you do also know that every time your credit history is queried, your score goes down? They can then use this (someone questioning your credit score) to raise your interest rate.

[Statistical]

7. Only inquiries in which the account holder requested credit lowers credit score.

Inquiries for promotional offers, employers, and you checking your own credit report does not lower score.

[Statistical]

2. You can put a freeze on your credit report.

It is kinda pain in the ass but essentially anyone running your credit report for any reason will be denied.
Of course this applies to you also. It would also apply to any employer doing a background check.
You can unfreeze the account when you want to request credit and then re-freeze it afterwords.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/FinancialPrivacy/LockAwayYourCreditFromIDThieves.aspx

Depending on how often you request credit it may or may not be worth it.

It may not be worth it because inquiries you don't request don't affect your credit score.

[cynatnite]

3. We locked experian so far...

I was concerned that these would hurt us, but I'm still bugged that they can look at it without my permission.

[Statistical]

5. Yeah the routinely troll the credit listings to find fishes to hook.

So they may tell experian shows us all the credit report in state of VA which have no bankruptcies, no judgements, have credit for at least 5 years, large credit card limit is at least $2,000 and has only one late in last year. Then once they get the list they use the info to send out "pre-aproved" offers.

The credit report should clearly indicate requests made by you, or requests made by others.

Something like this (from my equifax credit report):

Inquiries that may impact your credit rating
These inquiries are made by companies with whom you have applied for a loan or credit.

vs

Inquiries that do not impact your credit rating
These inquiries include request from employers, companies making promotional offers and your own requests to check your credit. These inquiries are only viewable by you.

Wording might vary slightly. Unless you specifically requested credit the inquiry should NOT be in the first category.

Only blocking your credit report. Make sure it is a "credit freeze". There is also a "fraud alert" but it isn't worth a dime. Most creditors ignore fraud alerts. With a freeze they are simply unable to pull your score or report history.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/FinancialPrivacy/LockAwayYourCreditFromIDThieves.aspx

[Gormy Cuss]

6. The whole reason credit reports exists is so that business can check your creditworthiness.

Credit bureaus are private, for-profit companies in the business of handing out information about us.
We don't own the data, the credit bureaus do. It's only through regulation that we are guaranteed access and that they are held accountable for errors.

I wish that more people would be bugged about the whole system. Then maybe we'd have better privacy safeguards, starting with a complete ban on the use of Social Security numbers by any entity without a Federal mandate to obtain the numbers. That would make it much harder for companies like credit bureaus to aggregate data on us, increase the cost of their product, and maybe even decrease the desirability of using credit reports for marketing.

[Statistical]

8. Removing Social Security number wouldn't do much good now.

Today the credit agencies could assign everyone a unique number: CreditID

To apply for credit you would need to use your CreditID. New "consumers" would be assigned a CreditID when they first requested credit.

I do agree SS# shouldn't be used for anything other than the SS agency. It was never intended as a national ID and doesn't have a lot of protections as a result. I just don't think it would hurt credit agencies that much.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. I wish that SS would be restricted to intended usage just because of the unofficial national ID

issue, but I've advocated for years that one way to add to the social security coffers is to make entities like credit bureaus pay to play --- they want to use it in lieu of setting up their own credit ID system, make'em pay through the nose.

A separate CreditID actually isn't a bad idea because it would be one more layer of protection against credit theft.

[Statistical]

10. That is a pretty good idea.

Charging them a licensing fee and per access fee could bring in hundreds of millions a year.

[NNN0LHI]

13. I wonder who those added costs would be passed on to?

:hi:

[Statistical]

15. Well by that logic we should never charge a fee, tax, or levy on any Corporation.

Corporations ability to pass on costs to consumer are limited.

If they weren't limited corporations wouldn't matter what the corp tax rate is. 50%, 70%, 90%, 99.99999999999% they could just keep raising prices so their post tax income is the same.

In the real world they don't have so much pricing pressure.

An added bonus is that costs would be passed directly to people pulling credit (creditors) which means they likely would send less of those annoying pre-approved offers since their costs would then go up.

[Gormy Cuss]

21. Consumers in the form of Social Security benefits.

Ultimately, that is who will benefit.

Remember that if the credit bureaus devised their own scheme there would be costs passed down the line too. The one thing that won't happen is the credit bureaus will do without a unique identifier.

:hi:

[Hannah Bell]

23. that's a good idea, charging them. i'm surprised that they don't.

[gateley]

11. Thanks for this -- had no idea. I'm going to do it. I never apply for credit

and I hate that people can access this info on me for other reasons. :hi:

[Statistical]

12. Glad I could help.

Congress forced the credit agencies to implement this and they don't advertise it.

Of course they don't make it easy (intentionally). Likely Congress will need to step in and force their hand again. Coming up with a single simplified system.

Here is a step by step:
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/11/now-a-way-to-st.html

Also unless you are a victim of ID theft Congress allowed them to charge a fee. I think it is like $10.

[gateley]

16. On the original article you linked to, it shows how much can be charged in each

stage, and you're right, it's generally around $10, which is cool. Additionally, in my state (WA) it's free for seniors, which is nice. This is one of the few times I'm sorry I'm not a senior!

Thanks again for this link -- I'm off to check it out! :hi:

[Xithras]

18. See #17. You can do the same thing for free n/t

[Xithras]

17. Yes, but be aware that some of your CURRENT credit lines may jack up your rates as a result.

BofA is notorious for this. There's a line buried in their user agreement which states that their offered interest rate is contingent on their ability to periodically check your credit to verify that you're still creditworthy. When I had a BofA Visa, they did this check about once a year. When I locked my credit files after my wife lost her purse, BofA was unable to perform this check and cut the card limit as a result. I had to UNLOCK the report and request a line increase to get it back where it was.

If your only concern is random checks, the credit reporting companies actually have a better way to handle this. The website at www.optoutprescreen.com will let you block unauthorized "prescreen" checks against your credit report without actually having to lock it. Companies you actually do business with will have access to check it as needed, but those blind "prescreen reports" from random credit card companies will cease. It's free, and you can lock out your account permanently if you want (never have to renew it). Parents can also use it to block prescreens on their childrens accounts (your kids get a credit report the moment you open their first bank account).

[Statistical]

20. Good to know.

I haven't locked my reports yet but I am considering it.

If any CC lowered my limit I would close my account. I am sick of their games. I know it will hurt my score but I have enough credit history and high enough score I can handle it.

The only card I wouldn't want to lose would be my USAA card. I will read the agreement to make sure they don't have a provision like that.

I did that optoutprescreen and it is good. It cuts down on the junk mail but the "previous business relationship" exemption is kinda broad. I get offers from my college, interest groups, even banks we previously had a CD with, I get offers from BofA (they bought countrywide and thus now have my mortgage), etc.

So many companies (at least in my instance) are able to game it. Still it does cut down on the offers. Went from maybe 20-30 offers a month to maybe 10.

[gateley]

22. Thanks -- wow, there's so many options out there I never heard about!! nt

[Kali]

4. not sure about any of that, it wouldn't surprise me at all - they seem to be able

to do whatever the hell they want about anything else...but my thought was maybe it was a result of the merge problem you mentioned - maybe the other party had applied for something and that triggered the inquiries?

[HipChick]

14. Yes they can..the credit bureaus routinely sell your information

that's why you get pre-screened offers..there is a difference between soft and hard inquiries..

[Xithras]

19. Unless you tell them not to

https://www.optoutprescreen.com/

[cynatnite]

24. Thanks for the link. n/t

[RedCloud]

25. They do this to ruin your credit and get more money out of you!

[Statistical]

26. Myth. Soft inquiries have no. effect on your credit score.