Ok guys, I have a question regarding an inquiry from Chase on my Experian report dated 8/20/2004. The situation involved is as such: I was notified that my APR would be increased on the account due to negative information being reflected on my credit report in May of 2004. I check my reports daily and no information was on the reports. I also called all the credit bureaus and they confirmed this was correct. I had seen Chase had pulled an AR in May of 2004. I think they raised my rate because I had a larger balance (approx 60% of the line) on the card and wanted to cash in on it! Anyways, I sent multiple letters regarding the APR increased and after three months, Chase notified me via mail they would be lowering my rate back to what it was originially. However, I checked my report to find a new inquiry! I wrote the company twice and finally received a response about the inquiry. The letter I received states as follows: Dear Mr. Russell, Your correspondance has been referred to me for personal attention and reply. Our records indicate that the inquiry dated August 20, 2004 that is appearing on your Experian consumer credit report is the result of your request to lower the Annual Percentage Rate on your above referenced bank account. You had made this request in your correspondance that was received through planetfeedback.com Please understand, it is our right under the cardmember agreement that governs this account to obtain consumer credit reports from credit bureaus on you at any time in connection with any extension of credit on your account, to review your account, or for other permitted purposes. Since you were requesting for us to reconsider our decision in increasing your APR, a review of your credit report was necessary to determine if we could lower the rate. Therefore, since we are correctly reporting our inquiry used to process your request, we cannot delete it. So, basically the company is saying they can pull hard inquiries at will for any reason! I find this upsetting, especially because I never "applied" for any type of credit, I was just trying to get the company to fix the error they made in the first place by stating I had a deliquency when I never did! What grounds do I have to follow here? I'm smelling some money???? Please, gurus give me some guidance here. Thank you! -Matt
The letter this person wrote you is correct. If Chase is going to lower your interest rate they are not going to take your word for it. They are going to evaluate your credit. Be thankful you got your rate back. This happened to my mother. She was not as fortunate as you are.
I understand what you are saying, but the problem is this: I never had any delinquencies on any of the three credit bureau reports! They should have never raised my rate in the first place! This being the case, the inquiry was invalid. Additionally, I never permitted this hard inquiry. Maybe I'm incorrectly understanding the proper use of hard inquiries, but I thought they were only to be used with your permission. I never gave them permission to use it, even if it was in the agreement. Shouldn't they have told me they were going to need to pull a credit bureau before doing it?
Look at your cardmember agreement. It's there. Chase can pull your credit bureau report as they choose. Banks do not just base credit performance on delinquency. They also base it on your outstanding balances. If you have $100,000 in credit limits with various banks and you have outstanding balances totaling $98,000.00 banks view this as a high risk. You are a BK waiting to happen. Some banks will also close your account with excess available credit. From what I hear Bank One is notorious for this. One inquiry is not going to hurt you especially when you have an explanation.
