Hello, New here but have been reading feverishly for the past few days. Have a few questions and hoping someone can help! 1. In Nov. 2002, we applied for credit at Best Buy and were rejected. We weren't too alarmed by this...a mortgage officer friend said she had a client with an 800 FICO who had been rejected at Best Buy. We also knew that our FICO score was around 700 at that time with no derogs, so we just thought it was some strange Best Buy thing. A couple of weeks later, a mysterious activated Household Bank credit card arrived in the mail. To add insult to injury, it already had a balance of $35--some fee they charge up front! we called to cancel it immediately but didn't think anything more of it, other than remembering that Household was the issuer of the Best Buy card and maybe it had something to do with that. (This is before I knew about creditnet et al...back in the day when we thought paying our bills on time was good enough for solid credit. HA.) This past summer, we received two notices from credit card companies stating that they were lowering our limits due to our TU credit score. This was obviously very alarming as we thought we were in good shape--we had been in great shape when we received our mortgage in 2002! Anyway, i have spent the summer learning as much about this credit/FICO stuff as possible. My GOD, how alarming it all is...the biggest scam EVER as far as i'm concerned...but I digress. When I reviewed the latest credit reports, I noticed that HHLD/Best Buy pulled a report on 11/15 from TU. That was the day we applied at BB. However, another report was pulled from Equifax by Household Credit Ser on 11/19--we knew nothing about this, never authorized it, but assume this pull generated the mystery card described previously. Seems to me that this qualifies as non pp--any opinons on the matter? Can a credit issuer reject you for one kind of credit, then pull a report again to issue a different kind you never asked for? 2. Earlier this summer, we needed a new computer. I was just learning about debt to credit ratios, so we decided to open an account with Dell and pay it off immediately so we'd have that TL showing. Again while reviewing the reports, I noticed that Dell pulled two reports--one in early June and one in mid-June. Since my husband set up the account, I asked him if he remembers what happened. He said he talked with them the first time and they told him they were checking to see if he qualified, they told him he did, then he called back 12 days later to actually set up the account and place an order. Is it right to have two hard inquiries for this? Now, we didn't know about inquiries negatively affecting scores, etc, at that time (how innocent we were!), but it seems to me that if they pulled a full report the first time, they shouldn't need another one 12 days later, or else the first time should have been some kind of prequalification or "soft" inquiry and they should have pulled a "hard" inquiry only when he actually applied. Does this make sense? Does one of the dell pulls qualify as a non PP? I would be really grateful for some guidance. I am all for addressing these issues to the fullest extent (including suing), but I don't want to send nasty letters if I'm misunderstanding the situation. Thank you!
I have read but won't swear by it, when you apply for the BB card, they can automatically consider you for a HH card (I believe its in the fine print). As far as Dell, as long as you have a relationship with them, they can pull your cr. Two hards stink. Maybe try a goodwill and see if they will at least recode the 2nd one to a soft.
On a best buy card app, the top portion is the app for the actual best buy card. In the middle, if you sign, you may be agreeing to their 'account shield' insurance. At the bottom, if you sign, you're also applying for a household bank mastercard. Both of these are optional, but it's not clear on the form unless you really read it, and the reps often will tell you to sign w/o explaining what you're signing. Many people sign thinking that's part of the bb card app. Gai-jin
To what Gai-Jin alluded to: You applied for the Best Buy card but were turned down-(TU credit pulled: turned down due to your TU FICO?) You either signed the portion for the HHB M/C (gold) or the service rep checked the box when they entered your app online at the store. In either case, HHB primarily uses EQ as a CRA. Because this approval is a different part of the company, in a different location, they pulled EQ at a later date and approved you based on your EQ FICO. This card has a $35 annual fee. It typically shows up about a month after you apply for the Best Buy. It's usually a low-limit, high-interest starter card. I got one and ended up with a whole $200 limit raise after a year. (Should've cancelled it)
