Auto dealer and permissible purpose

A few months ago my wife and I went looking for a new car and visited several dealers. Before we even managed to narrow it down to which model car we wanted we wound up being given a car by my brother who was leaving the country for several years. We never even got as far as discussing payments or anything with the dealers, nor did we apply for an auto loan with anyone at all.

In any case, I just realized that one of the dealers we went to made a hard inquiry on one of my credit reports. It's listed with the discription "Auto Loan on behalf of xxx dealer"

I sent the dealer a reasonably friendly letter simply stating that they made a hard inquiry and I was quite certain that I never filled out an application for an auto loan and asking them to please forward me proof that I gave them permission to pull my report.

The controller sent me a letter saying that he wanted to look into to this further, but needed more information from me. He asked that I gave him a call. When I called he asked if I had ever visited the dealership and asked if I filled out a loan app. I told him that I was in fact at the dealership, but I never filled out an application with his dealership or anyone else, since we got the car from my brother before we got serious about buying a car. He said that he would look into it further and call me back.

I gave him about a week and when I didn't hear from I called back. He said that he talked to the service that they use to pull credit reports. They said that the inquiry was too old for them to have any info about it, but they also said they can only pull a credit report with a social security number. He asked if I gave them my social security number and I told him that I'm quite sensitive about giving that out and I can't imagine why I would have. He said that he will look into their archives this week and see if he can find any documentation from them on this.

Right now his position is pretty much that since they need a social security number to pull a report then I must have given them my number, and therefore gave them permission to pull the report. Like I told him, I am pretty careful about who I give my SS number to and I honestly can't remember giving to them. I do know with absolute certainty, however, that I never filled out a loan app nor did I sign anything giving them permission to pull my credit report.

Here are my questions...

1. Is it legal to give someone verbal permission to pull my report or do I need to have signed something? I'm thinking that it is legal because I recently applied for a mortgage completely over the phone and that company did pull my credit report.

2. If it is legal to give verbal permission what documentation or proof do they need that I gave them permission? Is just saying that they needed my SS number to do the pull and since I must have given them that number I gave them permission legal or is there something more that they must do?

3. I'm very seriously considering taking this to court. If I do go ahead with this do you think I'll stand a chance? Like I said, I know with absolute certainty that I never signed anything, so they won't be able to produce my signature. All they have is that I must have given them my SS number.

Thanks much,
Brett

PS... sorry that was so long. Thanks for reading it though

 

I'm not sure if this is a geographical thing or what, but when my wife and I were looking we went to 5 or 6 dealerships and took test drives at all of them. None of them even mentioned pricing or credit checks. A few wanted a photocopy of my driver's license before the test drive, but most didn't even need that.

In any case, this isn't really relevant to my question. Does anyone know if a company needs written permission to pull a report, or if not, what sort of proof do they need that they got verbal permission?

Thanks,
Brett

 

Re: Re: Re: Auto dealer and permissible purpose

Unfortunatly that's not the case here in NY, but it was an interesting thought.

Thanks though,
Brett