Hi all--long time lurker, first time poster. Here's the background on the situation. I was reviewing my credit reports, and found a hard pull from Roadloans.com (aka Triad Financial). I went through the standard BS, sending them a letter via certified mail informing them that they are in violation of the FCRA.......to produce a document bearing my physical signature authorizing the pull, etc. Hear nothing. File a complaint with the Los Angeles County BBB. Hear back almost immediately, with them requesting all info again. Faxed info along with a copy of the certified mail receipt. Yesterday I receive a general form letter from them, along with a request for my SSN, full name, etc. Reply that I will not provide my SSN as they obviously have it on file. Today I receive an email from them stating that they will be removing the inquiry from my credit file. Now here's the interesting part. Their form letter reads the following.... "Date: 05/31/2006 Poor Schmuck 123 Main Street Anytown, NY 113XX Reference: Credit Inquiry Dear Mr. Schmuck: We are responding to your letter regarding why Triad Financial Corporation or Roadloans accessed your credit report. If your credit report shows an inquiry by Triad Financial, you may have recently visited a motor vehicle dealer to purchase a new or used motor vehicle and the dealer submitted your credit application to Triad Financial for review and consideration. If your credit report shows an inquiry by Roadloans, you may have applied for a loan on our Roadloans website or on another company's website and such company referred your application to Roadloans for review. In either case, your credit application provided us the authority to obtain your credit report. If you have further questions, you may contact the credit reporting agencies directly. Sincerely, Loan Administration Triad Financial Corporation" OK--the hard pull was performed on 4/12/06. Above form letter shows a revision date of 4/11/06 at the bottom of it. Could this have been Triad preparing for an onslaught of letters from consumers wanting to know why their reports were pulled?? Now here is the question--where do I go with this next? I managed to get the hard pull removed. I assume that their email to me stating that they are removing the inquiry is an admission of "guilt". I'm pretty sure that this violation of the FCRA equals $1,000, am I right? How do I pursue this further? I'm sure that I'm not the only one they pulled this with, and I want to hit them in their pocketbook if at all possible. Thanks in advance.
They may or may not have had your SSN on file. They would not have needed it to pull your report. Did you apply for a car loan, either at a car dealer, or on-line? Have any other unexpected inquiries, accounts or addresses shown up on your credit reports, that might indicate either id theft, or someone else's credit data spilling over into your file, perhaps due to a similar name and address?
Nope...didn't apply for a car loan in any way shape or form. I'm very happy with the vehicle I have, and don't plan on getting rid of it till the wheels fall off, which I estimate to be about 175,000 miles from now (125,000 on the clock now). No other inquiries, accounts, or anything have showed up. From my research, it seems that Roadloans.com (aka Triad financial) is a sub-prime predatory lender. They appear to be a real scumbag operation, although that is just my opinion. It just strikes me REALLY funny that their form letter regarding this was revised on 4/11/06 and the pull was on 4/12/06. Seems like they pulled a bunch of peoples reports and started doing a bit of CYA. Tip--check your TU reports and see if these bastardges show.....
"If your credit report shows an inquiry by Triad Financial, you may have recently visited a motor vehicle dealer to purchase a new or used motor vehicle and the dealer submitted your credit application to Triad Financial for review and consideration. If your credit report shows an inquiry by Roadloans, you may have applied for a loan on our Roadloans website or on another company's website and such company referred your application to Roadloans for review. " Generic form letter reply. If you want to push it, notify them that you did NOT apply for any loan with them, whether under the Triad Financial name, or under the Roadloans name, and notify them that they had no legal authority to pull your reports. Request that they provide a copy of any application, or any information submitted with any online application, that they claim gives them any authority to pull your credit report. You could sue, since technically they pulled without PP, whether they later removed the inquiry, and they could claim either it was a bona fide error, even that a clerk selected the wrong report for a pull under a similar name, or that someone actually submitted an application using your data. You might win something, or they might pay you to go away, or they might get off by claiming it was not their fault. What is it worth to you? Since they appear to deal mostly in car loans, any possibility a car dealer ran an unauthorized inquiry or loan application in your name? Any cases of loans in your area fraudulently submitted with other people's data, as happened in Florida?
Did that. Demanded that they show something bearing my physical signature authorizing the pull, and notified them that they had no legal authority to pull my report. Also cited portions of the FCRA relating to this I plan to sue if they do not remit the $1000 as requested. I submitted a demand for the $1000 payment to them, and gave them 15 days to reply after receiving the notice from them that they are removing the inquiry. After a bit of research I found an address to serve Triad at in NY, so I will be able to file against them in NYC small claims court. With the corresponsence that I have, I am confident that I will win. What I am hoping for is to reach an out of court settlement, which will save us both time and hassle Not that I'm aware of. I also demanded to know what dealership pulled the report - their reply to that was "We will remove the credit inquiry from your credit report" As far as cases of loans in my area being fraudulently submitted with other people's dats....I'm not really sure, as I haven't heard anything.
The reason I mention the fraudulently submitted loans, is that there was a cluster of cases, I think it was in Florida, where car salesmen at a single dealership were doing anything to make the sale, including taking identity information from shoppers who decided not to buy, and using it to create fraudulent loan applications for other customers who would not otherwise qualify, with the id theft victims as "co-signers" on the loan. It created a real mess, as in many cases the problem only surfaced a couple years later when the primary borrower defaulted and the lender or a CA started looking for the "co-signer". Some "co-signers" were even soldiers stationed overseas, who came back to find their credit trashed, and a CA demanding thousands of dollars on a car they never bought, at a time when they needed their good credit to continue in civilian life. Another report on id theft showed that a significant portion of id theft losses are in fraudulent auto loans.
