I recently joined Sam's Club. The lady at Sam's asked me if I wanted to apply for credit. I said "No, I've got enough credit already." She warned me that if I gave her a cell phone number for a phone number, credit would get declined. I indicated to her that, "I have credit lines coming out of my ears." My wife heard me both times. The lady at Sam's informed me that I had been approved for a $600 line of credit, and asked if I'd like to take advantage of that. I informed her that I was not interested. I went on Equifax today and checked my report. Here is what I saw: Name of Company Date of Inquiry Type of Inquiry SAMS/MBGA 12/XX/2004 PRM ONL XX is the date I got my Sam's Card. I feel that my right to privacy was violated when Sam's pulled my file. I KNOW they pulled my file, and that they got credit information about me, otherwise they wouldn't have offerred me a $600 line of credit, and they also wouldn't have had an inquiry that day. I am outraged, and I feel that I am entitled to compensation due to this violation of my privacy. Where do I go from here? Does psychdoc have a letter on this topic?
I guess that the real question here is did they in fact conduct a hard or a soft pull of your credit. A soft pull, for the permissible purpose of offering you credit is allowed. This is why you probably receive a kazillion pre-approved credit card offers. You can dispute a â??hard-pullâ? inquiry if you did not give your permission for the pull. Of course, you can always head to small claims court for the $1000 FCRA violation of a hard pull on your credit without a permissible purpose. Itâ??s my understanding that most people use this violation as an add-on to other claims i.e. a CA does a hard pull on your report in the process of collecting a debt (a non-permissible purpose). I would just dispute it with the CRAâ??s and get it off your reports.
Maybe I'm confused but you need a ssn to pull your credit file. I belong to Sam's and I've never needed to give them my social security number. I'm not doubting you that they pulled it but I guess I'm wondering if you filled out a credit app. How did they get your ssn? For a non-pp, send them a demand for statutory damages. If ignored, you have to file in small claims. You need to make sure you didn't fill something out.
I was standing in the store. I signed up for membership. They ran a soft pull, and then offerred me a line of credit. There is something very fishy about this whole thing. On my Equifax it showed up as a "PRM ONLY" pull in the soft pulls section.
Re: Re: How do I sue for non-PP pul I didn't fill anything out. I gave them my social because they asked for it. I actually signed NOTHING. They don't have my signature on file.
Re: Re: How do I sue for non-PP pul They could probably claim that they pulled as part of processing your "membership", even if they only do it for credit applications. A business transaction initiated by the consumer gives them PP. They could say it was to preapprove your payments by check. Focus on the unauthorized CC account, but link it to the inquiry. You might have more effect, and perhaps get the inquiry removed, complaining to their management (or Wal-Mart upper management or legal department). Their employees should not be opening credit accounts that customers have not applied for. They have used your identity information that you provided for one use, opening a membership account, instead for another, opening a credit card account. You could point out that this exposes them to fraudulent CC loss since you specifically directed the employee you did not want to open a CC account, yet one was created where you had no knowledge of its existance. The card could have been diverted, or if an "instant open" account, could have been used to run up charges that ultimately would have resulted in losses to Sam's. (Large companies don't like things happening they can't control.) You might also point out that mailing of a CC for which the consumer did not apply has long been a violation of federal law for which Sam's would be fully liable, and you specifically rejected applying. Make clear you want the account closed and the inquiry removed, as it was ILLEGALLY opened. You might also demand that they provide the name of the employee that submitted the unauthorized application.
