Okay...I'm going to give it a shot by dealing directly with the companies for the inquiries posted on Equifax. Looks like I have seven in the past twelve months...four of which are from this ONE company...lol. I'm going to send them the following but wanted to get some feedback first. If you don't recognize the below...it is based on Christine's letter to WF. Dear Sir or Madam: In reviewing my Equifax credit report recently, I noticed that <your company> obtained my credit report on four separate occasions in the past four months. The dates were 4/27/02, 3/22/02, 3/9/02, 2/5/02. The only time I recall applying for credit with your company was when I applied for a <retail account> on April 27, 2002. I also did not apply for employment with <your company> and to my knowledge, I had no business relationship with your company prior to April 27, 2002 that would have given you a permissible purpose to request my credit history. I would direct your attention to the Fair Credit Reporting Act 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681n which states: "(b) Civil liability for knowing noncompliance. Any person who obtains a consumer report from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses or knowingly without a permissible purpose shall be liable to the consumer reporting agency for actual damages sustained by the consumer reporting agency or $1,000, whichever is greater." Additionally, a 1998 Federal Trade Commission opinion letter to Greenblatt states that: "Any person who procures a consumer report under false pretenses, or knowingly without a permissible purpose, is liable for $1000 or actual damages (whichever is greater) to both the consumer and to the consumer reporting agency from which the report is procured." Please explain your permissible purpose for obtaining my credit report prior to April 27, 2002. Should you not have a permissible purpose, please arrange for payment of $1,000 immediately. In the alternative, please immediately delete these inquiries from my credit report. L
I would add, Please arrange for payment of $1.000 by "any date" or I will have to seek for a small claims suit that could be substantially higher.
Well...I had that, but since I do now have a business relationship with them now...I'm afraid to threaten them too much...lol. I want them to delete all but one inquiry and sometimes you get more with honey than with vinegar. I'm not really sure how to handle this...lol. Could this backfire in a big way? L
I tried that type of letter with an insurance company that pulled my report for a quote. They sent me a letter to "refresh my memory" with the info I supposedly gave them (hubby was somehow 16 years older based on their birthdate for him, LOL). But to prove how uninformed companies can be, they said they didn't think inquiries on a credit report in any way affected your creditworthiness. Had to laugh at that one. I'm not sure how to proceed from here. I think I did ask for a quote but never applied for insurance with them. Let us know how you decide to handle it, whyspers. I'm thinking maybe you could approach it with "I'm very glad to now be your customer, however the inquiries into my report prior to this are unnecessarily hurting my credit scores, would you be so kind as to remove all of those prior to our relationship?"
Laurie, I figure about half of the population could come up with that info, unfortunately. Every time I pay a bill, the account number is on the check, my checking account number, bank name, my name, address, etc. For years my drivers license was my ssn and then of course the lawsuits I have filed all bear my SSN, telephone number, address, name, etc., as well as every doctors office, my employer, every school I have ever attended...the school my oldest daughter goes too...man...the list just goes on. I could personally add a ton of inquiries to a lot of people's credit reports by applying for things in their names simply because I have access to their information (although I would *NEVER* not to mention it is illegal). The possibility exists, though, that my kids were on the computer and my filing cabinets are right next to my desk containing thick folders with my credit reports which naturally contains all of the information they would need. While I would hate to add another security statement to my file, it is entirely possible that...what is that phrase they use?...something about checking with the person first because applications may be submitted using correct identifying information. Anyway...just rambling on this. I sure hope it works! Otherwise, EQ will never budge on these. L
I was thinking that you could add something about how the additional inquiries may hinder you in obtaining credit that you need and could result in damages. Let them know that this information is hurting you in some way.
Very close to the letter that I send. I try to keep my letters not so "Credit Repair Letter" like. I like to add one or two misspelled words...lol I have found that these work better. Here is mine Dear Sir or Madam: In reviewing my Experian credit report, I noticed that Providian obtained my credit report on 11/10/2001. I did not apply for credit or employment with Providian and to my knowledge, I had no business relationship with your company. I therefore have not given you a permissible purpose to request my credit history. I have done some research regarding the Fair Credit Reporting Act, in disgust that you would pull my personal information without my knowledge or permission. I found the following information under 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681N "Civil liability for knowing noncompliance. Any person who obtains a consumer report from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses or knowingly without a permissible purpose shall be liable to the consumer reporting agency for actual damages sustained by the consumer reporting agency or $1,000, whichever is greater." Please explain your permissible purpose for obtaining my credit report. Should you not have a permissible purpose, please arrange for payment of $1,000 by 2/10/01 or I will be forced to file suit in Small Claims for this invasion of privacy and damage to my report.
OhNo, I too try to avoid the credit repair lingo, and I think that works best. That is a well written, concise, and simple letter you wrote, I like it. Have you found it to work? And if so, what percentage of the time do they delete? -Peace, Dave
Dave, Don't let me take all the credit, I did get the base of it from somewhere as well. I just reworded it. I have sent it to 7 companies all of which deleted. Only one waited until after I actualy did file suit. Big CCC starts with a "D" sent me 200.00 plus filing costs after I actualy did file suit.
ok, I'm going to dissent on this one. While I do agree that they shouldn't pull 4 for 1 application, since you were approved they can poke into your credit all they want... reread the fcra. It hurts you if they do it via all hard inquiries and not 1 hard and all the rest soft... but they have permissible purpose if they're a current creditor (after the first pull)... also, your letter admits you gave them permissible purpose, and even if you didn't give explicit permission, they'd get it with your application for credit (to determine eligibility)... so again the pulls are ok... so, I wouldn't send that letter to a current creditor. (unless you mean you have another account but didn't get approved for this one)... although that'd be tough to differentiate... anyway, I would send a letter stating that all the pulls were hard and that connotes 4 separate and distinct applications for credit and that's not complete and accurate (reference those sections)... please remove or reclassify all but 1 inquiry... also, I'd dispute with the cras and when they ignore you then you'd have a nice fcra violation against the cras... not complete and accurate (again, reclassify or remove the extras) as it unfairly penalizes you. Let me guess... household or fcnb?
well maybe I should just go to sleep now... you're saying you applied for the last inquiry but not the ones before? are they hard inquiris or are they coded PRM (promotional) which is soft... and if they're not coded that way, how did they pull your info? I'm totally confused as how they would have pulled hard inquiries before you applied... is you file confused with another persons??? I'm going to bed... my brain must be on vacation...
Right, Marie...actually, one of the previous inqs was also mine, but the other two I suspect came from "mommy's little helper" in the form of one of my teenagers. They know how much time I've spent on this and were probably trying to be helpful. All of my stuff is right there in the desk and filing cabinets so they had all of my info. I've had a long talk with my teens to make them understand that this isn't a game and I have worked very hard to get the errors from my credit report and when/if they do this, it sabotages my efforts. Anyway...thanks for all of the input. Guess we'll see what happens. L
