OKay, I used to bank with Firstar which was bought out by us bank about 8 months ago. Anyway, I just recieved an updated copy of my equifax report and bloody US bancorp has a AR pull every month since July on my report. Now why would they keep pulling AR's on my report when I only have a checking account with them. I am kindof disturbed that they keep pulling up my report every month for just having a checking account with them and I am never negative, infact we put plenty of money in there every month. I do have the check visa card but again that is not credit so I feel violated that they are pulling my report every month and checking on me, grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Do you think I should call them on this and ask them why they feel the need to do this? I mean doesn't AR stand for annual review not monthly, grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I did and they said it was for offers. I told them that PRM meant offers and that AR meant Account review like you told me. They said mmmmmmm, I don't know then. Talk about a nosey bank. I could understand if I was a new customer but I bank with Firstar for over 1.5 years before US Bank took over. Sounds like they just like to nose their way into our lives. They haven't offered me anything probably because my credit is only a 640 on equifax but I don't like them nosing into my business just for being a checking account customer with them on a monthly basis.
Melissa - i have an Elan Financial Services Visa which is owned by US BAnk. Same deal - every month - on Experian & TU - an AR. The only other card that does that - in my case - every month - is Citibank. I'm also - uh - truly touched - by their concern for my financial situation... I can understand an AR once every 6 months or so - but EVERY MONTH? Jeez....
Yo call up those US Bank Scumbags and tell them to either show you some paperwork that says you allow them to invade your privacy like that or stop or else you go to another bank.
I have WAL*MART~~AR (EQUIFAX) about 15 times this year...(credit limit is <$4,000 not $275,000!!!)...NEVER LATE, NEVER OVER-LIMIT. I SHOULD ASK THEM "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR"???
Yeah GEORGE - the weird thing is that i rarely use the Elan visa - and it hasn't had a balance for a few months. If i was over 50% utilization (and I've never been over 15% utilization on that card) = i could understand. I think Elan - and maybe Citi too - just AR everyone's account once a month. i've had Chase for six months now - not one AR.
I noticed this on my husband's EQ CR, too. We also had accounts with Firstar... in fact, we started with Mercantile, then it was bought by Firstar. Now, it is US Bank. Funny thing is, Firstar actually bought US Bank, not the other way around. US Bank was the bigger of the two (they were owned by brothers and the owner of US Bank wanted to retire) so it was more cost effective to change all the Firstar signs, paperwork, etc to US Bank than to go the other way. This is from our personal banker who is also a friend of ours. I talked to her a couple of weeks ago and she said a guy came into the bank saying something about needing to paint the sign blue. She told him that was fine... just don't change the name without telling someone! LOL Anyway, we still maintain our accounts there. When we got our EQ CR's, I was looking at DH's and noticed all the inquiries from US Bancorp. I said who is that? Duh! But, it didn't register because he doesn't have a credit card with them... just an account with the check card, yet they pulled his on the exact same dates they pulled mine, every other month. Guess I need to call our friend and ask what's going on, huh? I'll try to remember to call tomorrow and report back what I find out.
Finally got a minute to call my friend. She doesn't understand why they would be pulling it, either. She is going to do some checking for me and will call me back, probably Monday. I'll let you know if and when I find out something.
Do you have overdraft protection with the checking account? If not, it must be because of your checking account debit card. I got a US Bank checking and savings account several months ago, but decided against allowing them to issue me a debit card or overdraft protection because they could not guarantee it wouldn't result in a hard inquiry. There are no AR's on any of my reports from US Bank. They did use ChexSystems when I initially opened the account. By the way, the bank manager said there is a lot of talk in the credit industry about the future of how hard inquiries factor into one's FICO score. He said customers are becoming very aware of the negative impact of hards, and it is hindering the banks in their pursuit of new credit card customers.
cool Bumblebee. My lady only gave the credit center number but she actually talked to someone from there. I think it is such an invasion of privacy since we only have checking accounts. I do have the check visa card like I said, I didn't just apply for it, I have had it since opening the account with firstar and then when us bank took over they gave me another one. I don't think they should be able to pull softs even if you just have the check visa card because it isn't credit, It is like writing checks for god sakes. If you don't have the money then it will be declined. ON top of that, check cards have daily spending limits. I think mine is 500 dollars. No I don't have overdraft protection. I have basic free checking with them.
UPDATE Our friend called earlier this week and said she had talked to someone else (don't remember what her position is with the bank :-/) and gave me a ticket number and a fax number to fax the portion of DH's CR that has the AR inquiries on it. He faxed that to her today (I lost the info and had to call our friend to get it again!). It is to be researched and then she will get back with us with the exact reason for the inquiries. We'll see what happens.
No problem. We want to know why they're doing it, too! Besides, I've got the bank employees doing the research!
Heard from my friend at the bank today. She said that they pull a "limited" report for the purpose of extending pre-approved offers. She couldn't tell me why they code it as AR instead of PRM, just that it was a "soft pull" (I knew that already!) and that I could stop them from doing it by asking for their "Privacy Pledge". She said that she had done that with her accounts. She was going to go ahead and put it on ours, too, so I'll watch that for the next few months and see if they do any more pulls. I was just looking at the explanations of AR and PRM. It looks like PRM is where the CRA provides the name and address of the person to a credit grantor when you meet certain predetermined criteria because otherwise, the credit grantors have no way of knowing who you are. On the other hand, we are already customers of US Bank so they are looking to see if we qualify for any of their promotions. Am I making sense? I think I understand what is happening, but I'm not sure I'm explaining it very well. I also don't know how legal it is, but you can stop them from doing it by asking your personal banker to put a "Privacy Pledge" on your account. Hope this helps.
Mark, Don't feel bad ! I have had CITI pull a soft three times in a month. TWICE...then they go two months and again two more three days apart. It used to p... me off, I envisioned jackals just waiting to jack up my APR at the first sign of trouble! I haven't been late with them in three years, I've had the account since 1989, Jeez,,,for me it's more like WTF? JohnM
The reason why they pull a soft is to prequalify you for offers (credit cards, line of credit, etc). They do the same thing to me...it's just their way of finding out if they can prequalify you for anything for marketing purposes.
