Hello All, It's been a long time since I posted. My father went into a car dealer and paid cash for a car and they pulled a hard on his Exp. I know that is wrong, so what is the best strategy for dealing with that and is there a good letter for that? Thank you all in advance. NVBoneDoc
In my industry, we (the car dealership) don't post tradelines - just pull bureaus. However, my Dad and I share the same first and last name, and our credit is often intertwined (poor guy). So I would say you DO NOT need an SSN to post a tradeline - just a name and address.
I believe that is correct, since I have seen references to similar problems. I have also seen references to credit file header information, including SSN and month and year of birth. What is needed to pull that? In other words, if you don't already have an SSN for a consumer, can you get it from a CRA by providing other "identification"?
CRA's act as vendors to corporations buy selling your credit report. However, only set criteria can be used to obtain a credit report. A SSN and first and last name is all that is needed to pull a report. It's true that an address is needed, but it does not necessarily have to match that on your credit report. However, I cannot get your header information without your SSN. I can pull a full report or nothing at all. I cannot phish for your information.
What I am trying to understand is a number of consumer reports, particularly involving the activities of CAMCO before it was shut down, where a debt collector apparently pulled a consumer's report and used it to attempt to brow-beat a consumer into paying a debt, yet the debt did not appear to belong to that consumer, nor did it appear to be an identity theft case. There were also newspaper reports of ex-employees claiming that it was common practice to attempt to collect from people with the same name in the area where a debt originated, with some selection done based on the likely level of sophistication of the target "debtor". Collecting from consumers who did not owe a debt was one of the main FTC charges that resulted in shutting down the company. The consumer has been led to believe that his identity and financial security depends on preserving the secrecy of his SSN, a number which in turn has already been disclosed to undeterminable numbers of companies, either directly or indirectly. I am interested in how much of this "security" has already been compromised by current practices.
I guess my question would be more to those with access to a soft inquiry. Maybe that gives you access to that header information you were talking about, and doesn't require a SSN, since it doesn't lower your credit score? I don't know. I can only pull the hard's.
