back in november of 2001 i applied at a mobile home dealer and was denied due to my credit well yeaterday they called and they said we were going through old files and fou d yours a pulled your credit report to see if you got a better score to see if we could help you now and they couldnt.can i do anthing since they pulled it again or is my authorization from november still lets them pull it again with out my knowledge?
Try this letter out: Via fax to 925-686-7551 Wells Fargo Legal Department November 5, 2001 To whom it may concern: As per my Equifax credit report, Wells Fargo obtained my credit file on 7/19/01. I don't recall applying for credit or employment with Wells Fargo. From the FCRA § 616. Civil liability for willful noncompliance [15 U.S.C. § 1681n] "(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." From the 1998 FTC opinion letter Greenblatt at http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/greenblt.htm: "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 your obtaining my credit file. Should you not have a permissible purpose, please arrange for payment of $1,000 by November 15, 2001. Please respond via fax to 123.456.7890. Sincerely,
to tell me my report was much better and if could pay off a few things thats still on there then they probably could help guess they just wanted to let me know
Before we jump the gun... it sounds impermissible, yes. That's a 1,000 fine and jail time for the person who pulled it... UNLESS: you signed a document that they could pull it and keep pulling it at will for x amount of time UNLESS: you have other accounts with this institution... although you certainly could say they pulled if for the reason of getting you a new loan and not for your existing loan It is a violation: if you signed an application for the purposes of that one loan and you didn't get approved... and you thought that was that. They can't just keep pulling your report at will... unless they're your current creditor (credit card, installment loan) and in that case the pull would be soft and not hard... because hard inquiries connote a new application for credit (which you did not do). Even without your signature, they can pull it, for example... when you FIRST applied for this loan. but most lenders are smart enough to get a signature. Unless you signed some weird application... this is very impermissible. Send the demand letter and followup with a small claims lawsuit if you are willing to... this is illegal and the hard inquiry will cost you points for items you really do apply for in the future. If they actually stated to you that they pulled it "just to see if your score had gone up"... well, I'd say it's impermissible and stupid. Honestly, you may also wish to complain to the FTC and to your state's atty general's office... this is also illegal since they should know it's impermissible. These guys need to be stopped from doing this to everybody in their files.
Frankly, I think this is also false pretenses: § 619. Obtaining information under false pretenses [15 U.S.C. § 1681q] Any person who knowingly and willfully obtains information on a consumer from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses shall be fined under title 18, United States Code, imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both.
