I am going to be writing to several companies that have viewed my credit report. I am going to ask for $$$ because they did not have a permissible purpose for viewing said report. I am somewhat at a loss for words... I was hoping that some of you old pro's here might be able to help with the wording of these letters and possibly some legal back up in case I get a no way in response. 1.) What law should I refer to regarding the permissible purpose? 2.) Is there any case law that I can peruse? 3.) Is this (no permissible purpose) an actionable offense (can I sue for this) without showing actual damages? (ie. do I have to show that I was turned down or paid higher rates because of the inquiries). Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated. PAE
Much obliged Butch.... Have you gotten your reply yet? Has this type of letter worked for you in the past? Thanks again. PAE
Those letters do work!! I received money from Kohl's last month. It took about 3 months to finally get them to see my point of view and make them realize only after the threat of a lawsuit that it would be in their best intrests to settle this matter and delete and send a check. I am however suing Collectech for an unauthorized inquiry. I never had an account with Collectech and they even admitted to me that they don't even realize how or why it happened. They offered deletion but said paying me money is ridiculious! I filed my suit against them last week, we will see how ridiculious it is when they go before the judge! I am in a battle as well with Sam's Club for pulling my wife's credit without her permission. I just go a response to my initial letter asking them for their permissible purpose and a check for $1000 sent to me before the 15th. Their response was they made a mistake and would notify the credit bureaus to delete. The rep in her letter said that she hopes this is a reasonable offer and is agreeable to me. If not she said to call her at the number listed above. Problem is there is NO number anywhere listed in her letter sent to me??? Mistake or coincidence?? Either way with a few phone calls and research today I came up with her number. I will be calling her first thing on Monday morning to make it clear that I am NOT agreeable to her terms of just deletion. It can work but man it's alot of work! People aren't just gonna pay you! You have to convince of them otherwise! Tac
Tac... let me ask you this: 1. when you close and fully pay off an account in 1997, can a company pull a soft on you over and over every month in 2002? (this is WFNNB). Heck they pulled for "Lane Bryant" I am way fat but I am a man! 2. when I applied for peoplefirst refi on my car, they denied me but capital one second chance auto loans pulled my credit (BOTH HARDS). Do they have the right to do that? Thank you! Good luck in your cases.
My wife had a bunch of "SOFT" for FIRST USA (CLOSED) on EXPERIAN...what are they going to do LOWER THE CREDIT LIMIT OR INCREASE THE INTEREST RATE???
I would love to see more in-depth discussion of this type of violation. If a company pulls a soft is that the same thing? what about those promotional pulls? I thought that you (I) could only collect on the 'hard' pulls.....
No they cannot pull your credit!! If you paid them in 1997 and owe them no money then that is where your business relationship with them ends. The only time a company can pull your credit is when you... Give them permission, Have an account with them and owe them money, this is called an AR or Account Review, Apply for credit with the company Apply for employment If none of the above exsist then they have violated the law and owe you $$$$ money!! As far as Peoplefirst goes I think they are owned by Capital One somehow because the same exact thing happened to me when I applied. You would have to check the disclosure on their website that you agreed to. It may as I think so have a stipulation which you also agreed to allow their subsidary or someone they deal with to also pull your credit to see if they could provide you with an auto loan. Tac
I DO NOT want people looking at my credit unless they have a good reason. For example, citibank is considering upping my limit, thats fine go look. But an account that is closed for years, there is 0 reason to do it. What I am worried about is someone working for WFNNB getting a hold of someones good credit and screwing it up. I am considering calling them on Monday to discuss. I do not plan on telling them it is soft. here is another one: AR-Compucredit WHY in the blue hell is this company looking at my credit. I have the: PROMOTIONAL BLOCK FILE BLOCKED FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES Blah!
what about promotional purposes? Don't those show as 'soft' inquiries? aren't they permissible? Please clarify this for me because I'm a little confused about this one issue... Q.) Are soft inquiries held to the 'permissible purpose' rule and therefore 'actionable' if the above conditions did not apply. (ie. can I get $$$ for a soft inquiry) also, does it matter if the 'soft' inquiry is promotional?
Soft inquiry to my knowledge are permissible because the person who is doing the soft is not getting and reviewing your complete credit report. They are only receiving your name, address and phone number. I think that when you receive a pre-approval offer for a credit card I think the company may ask the CRA if the person meets a minimum score requirement. If they do the company will then send the pre-approval offer to you and then run your complete credit at time of application. I was told over and over that soft inquiries do not hurt or go against your credit score. BTW, I have also opted out of receiving credit offers. Tac
I understand that to mean: soft inquiries do not hurt your score. soft inquiries are not bound by the permissible purpose rules. soft inquiries are not actionable (can't get $$$). If I'm wrong please tell me. This stuff is all so confusing, it's no wonder most people don't even care about their credit reports.....
Yes, you are understanding it correctly...No money for Soft inquiries. If that wasn't the case I could probably retire off of all the money I would make off of soft inquires!! LOL!! Tac
The violation is predicated on the fact that they got your private information without your permission. Whether it's a hard or a soft pull makes no difference at all. They still get your full report. Promotional inquiries, on the other hand, only pull up header information not the complete credit reprot. See? In my opinion the most rediculous part of this whole thing is this silly $1,000. I make a lousy grand with a HELL of a lot less work than this takes. My point is I'm gonna nail these jokers for accessing my report.
