After re-reviewing my Equifax report, I discovered an inquiry from Compucredit(Emerge) on 8/9/2002. Now as you all know, Providian did not sell us out to Emerge until 10/14/02, more than 2 months after they first pulled my report. I believe this means a $1,000.00 violation for no permissable purpose. If it was done to ALL those who were sold to Emerge, this could mean a potential of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in violations for a non-permissable purpose pull. Check your reports!
I'm not a victim (Providian retained my accounts,) but I've read some of the horror stories elsewhere. This is a very helpful post!
I just looked and yeppers they did pull an AR on 8/9/02. Providian notified me in October; wonder when they actually took the account though? May be worthwhile to send a PP letter
Sure, if the person who experienced an account review had an account with Emerge at the time of the review! I think the point here is that Emerge accessed numerous consumers credit histories for the purpose of conducting account reviews prior to the company actually taking ownership of that persons account which would be considered not having a permissible purpose! Better yet and much more egregious in terms of seeking relief would be based on whether or not the effected consumers had taken the steps to 'opt out' - an option required by federal law for companies that routinely share/sell customer information - to prevent the card issuer from disclosing such information to third parties! I think the $1,000 PP CRA violation is nothing when compared to the penalties for dislcosing proprietary information after a consumer opts out! Michael
Just to add to the mix of opinions here, I feel just because Emerge started servicing the accounts in Mid October, does not mean they did not have the transaction information in process, beforehand. A portfolio as large as the one Providian sloughed off last year, was a sizeable one and it probably took time to get all previous information sent over and organized. Remember its not just the account maintenence related information that is sent over, but anything from any piece of correspondence received from consumers, applications kept on file, dispute information etc, you name it, the company should have it and if its too old then the medium probably used is microfiche and there is retrieval time involved when accessing the microfiche as well. So I would not get your hopes up, as if they pulled an AR in August, this could be behind the scenes work prior to getting everything set up, as they have a target deadline to hit as well which was previously set up in contracts between Providian and Compucredit during the sale of the portfolio. Just to put in perspective, Bank One, the company I work for, just recently took over Fidelity National Bank's credit card accounts, a small bank from Atlanta they were only somewhere around 24 units in Georgia.--they were the most Antiquated bank I can imagine, as they did all of their work on paper(no computer). So for the last few months prior to the official Bank One commencing servicing date around May 17, 2003, we have had dedicated people on the clock diligently sifting through boxes and folders, and backend scanning everything into the computer online paper queues, as at Bank One keeps everything on computer and if it after 7 years old or the account is purged from the system due to inactivity it goes to microfiche. I can understand your reasoning but they probably had some sort of pp, as this type of portfolio transfer takes time, so they probably began receiving your information throughout last summer 2002, and on the second note is was an AR to currently rate the consumer for pricing purposes. I also believe the deal was complete between Compucredit and Providian on or around June 25, 2002, as stated from their website(Providian's). Good luck though if you decide to write them. Jeremy
Re: Re: ATTENTION Providian/Emerge Victims! Jeremy, Again, good points all! If news of the pending merger/acquisition was made public in June and the ARs occurred in September/October, then obviously that closes that line of action. I am not a Providian/Emerge customer and this is likely a debate for high priced legal types, but in legal terms, until such a merger/purchase has been disclosed and is in the public domain, customer account information is proprietary. Alternatively, I have yet to read a post from anyone who has been effected by this transfer that mentions anything about Emerge sending them a federal Truth in Lending disclosure - amended or otherwise. Michael
Re: Re: ATTENTION Providian/Emerge Victims! All good points here but I would also like to add that although the transferring of accounts probably did need a major amount of time to complete, Emerge still had no permissable purpose to pull my report on August 8, 2002! It doesn't matter if it was only an AR, which I think it was, legally they did not have true ownership of the account until 10/14/02. During the month of August and September, any charges made were made on a Providian card and all payments were made to Providian, not Emerge/compucredit. Furthermore, this was not done on the up and up despite the statement in June because nowhere in the letter I received in October informing me of this transfer did it mention Emerge was actually compucredit. This was deceitful through and through. I just paid the stupid account off in full, thank goodness, although I closed it 11/01/02. I'm now going to wait one billing cycle to see if Emerge/Compucredit pulls my report again AFTER the pay-off date of 5/22/03. If they did I'm going to NAIL THEM!
Just because Providian's website says it NOW doesn't mean it said it then! (It didn't). As far as the transfer, I understand everything you said but since providian had already jacked the interest rate to 29.99% effective August 1, 2002, compucredit/emerge still had no reason what-so-ever to view my credit report on 8/8/02. Although they were in the process of transferring info at that time, they weren't LEGALLY the owners of my account until 10/14/02! Therefore, since I did not apply for credit or employment with them, had no account with them at that time, they had no permissable purpose to view my credit report! Had I known about the sale, I would have closed my account prior to the acquisition.
does this mean that you could delete this account from the credit report and not have to pay the balance sience i never applied for this new credit card and who wouldn't have proof of me signing up. really non of my credit cards have a signed app. from me cause i've applyed for all my cards online. what do you think. thanks
Not to add yet another perspective, but Providian did an AR pull on me in January 2003 - 3 months AFTER the handoff, and 2 months after I paid the account off and closed it. So.... Providian lost its PP with the handoff to eMerge in October or my paying it off and closing it in November. Providian already has a PP letter. ITS letter goes out on the 21st. It wll sound really interesting in Cpourt if Providian shows up and says "we THOUGHT he still had an account...."
