Hard inquiries by current creditors

[Anonymous]

I have 4 on Trans and 3 on my Exp.  

My understanding is that those should show as soft inquries.  Is it worth disputing?

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have 4 on Trans and 3 on my Exp.  

My understanding is that those should show as soft inquries.  Is it worth disputing?

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No, a creditor that has PP (Permissible Purpose) to pull your reports can do either HP or SP and as long as a debt is owed even a Zombie they have PP.

[Anonymous]

Thanks!  I appreciate the information.  

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

Agreed that there is nothing to dispute.

However,this is one of many reasons why you should ALWAYS keep your credit reports frozen when not actively applying for new credit.  When the reports are frozen, nobody can do an HP.  Period.  If a lender or CA or anyone else with a permissible purpose wants to look at your report, they can knock their socks off doing SP's.

Leaving your credit reports unfrozen is like leaving the keys in your car wth the door unlocked.  It is just asking for trouble.  And it's trouble you could have avoided by paying a small fee.

[Anonymous]

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@CH-7-Mission-Accomplished wrote:

Agreed that there is nothing to dispute.

However,this is one of many reasons why you should ALWAYS keep your credit reports frozen when not actively applying for new credit.  When the reports are frozen, nobody can do an HP.  Period.  If a lender or CA or anyone else with a permissible purpose wants to look at your report, they can knock their socks off doing SP's.

Leaving your credit reports unfrozen is like leaving the keys in your car wth the door unlocked.  It is just asking for trouble.  And it's trouble you could have avoided by paying a small fee.

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Agreed, not that I ever knew this before.  I had one creditor do 4 HP's in about a months time just before I filed.  They had been notified that I had retained an attorney and that we were filing.  I guess they just wanted too keep checking my report and apparently a SP wasn't good enough.

[Anonymous]

True.  As soon as I get my Citi DC, I'm freezing!  brrrrrrr

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Agreed, not that I ever knew this before.  I had one creditor do 4 HP's in about a months time just before I filed.  They had been notified that I had retained an attorney and that we were filing.  I guess they just wanted too keep checking my report and apparently a SP wasn't good enough.

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That ^^^^ doesn't seem like a Permissable Purpose. I thought a PP was only when you're applying for credit, either a new CC or loan or requesting a CLI on existing credit. An existing creditor nervous because they have info that you're gonig to file BK shouldn't be a PP, you're not requesting any new or increased credit from them, pretty much the opposite.What would they possibly hope to gain from a HP? Triple your CL in hopes you'll just keep digging yourself deeper in a hole instead of seeking a fresh start?

[bstone]

A freeze on your credit sounds good in theory, but I wouldn't call it a "small price" by any means.  Just looking at TU it's $10 to add the freeze, $10 to remove it, $10 to allow temp access, basically $10 whenever I want to apply for something.  I can only assume the other two CRAs are similar.  So, let's say I want to buy a car, it's $30 just to allow them to pull my credit ($10 x 3 CRAs).  If I don't like their deal or I want to shop and I've passed the time I allowed the freeze to be temp lifted it's another $30.  Want to apply for a credit card?  $30.  BS.  They already sell enough of our information to make a tidy profit, freezing credit should be a no charge right as a protection of our identity.

I guess the other option is pay for credit monitoring from each CRA.  I know when I had TU monitoring they allowed me to freeze my credit from the app at no additional charge, my guess is the other two CRAs are the same way, but now you're talking $50-60/mo for this access.

[TRC_WA]

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@CH-7-Mission-Accomplished wrote:

Agreed that there is nothing to dispute.

However,this is one of many reasons why you should ALWAYS keep your credit reports frozen when not actively applying for new credit.  When the reports are frozen, nobody can do an HP.  Period.  If a lender or CA or anyone else with a permissible purpose wants to look at your report, they can knock their socks off doing SP's.

Leaving your credit reports unfrozen is like leaving the keys in your car wth the door unlocked.  It is just asking for trouble.  And it's trouble you could have avoided by paying a small fee.

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Interesting... never thought about it like that.

At the same time though... I haven't had a reason to.  All of my creditors (CapOne, AmEx, Discover, Barclays, BECU, Synchrony, etc) have done a SP when they've done a review.

At one time in 2013 Barclays was doing a SP every week... that has since slowed down to a SP every 4-6 months.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

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@bstone wrote:

A freeze on your credit sounds good in theory, but I wouldn't call it a "small price" by any means.  Just looking at TU it's $10 to add the freeze, $10 to remove it, $10 to allow temp access, basically $10 whenever I want to apply for something.  I can only assume the other two CRAs are similar.  So, let's say I want to buy a car, it's $30 just to allow them to pull my credit ($10 x 3 CRAs).  If I don't like their deal or I want to shop and I've passed the time I allowed the freeze to be temp lifted it's another $30.  Want to apply for a credit card?  $30.  BS.  They already sell enough of our information to make a tidy profit, freezing credit should be a no charge right as a protection of our identity.

I guess the other option is pay for credit monitoring from each CRA.  I know when I had TU monitoring they allowed me to freeze my credit from the app at no additional charge, my guess is the other two CRAs are the same way, but now you're talking $50-60/mo for this access.

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This is incorrect.  The $10 cost is the cost to unfreeze and refreeze, so it's $10.  If a lender wants to HP you, ask them which bureau they want to pull and you choose to unfreeze it.  No need to unfreeze the other bureaus unless you want to invite a triple pull.

My FICO costs nearly $30/month with tax.  I think it is worth every penny of that.   When  your scores are not very, very high, small differences in FICO scores can give very different interest rates -- especially if you are on the borderline with a FICO tier cutoff, like you need a 680 to get the best rate of 2% or whatever.

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.  For $10 you control your credit report with each bureau.  And you decide who you want to allow to knock 4 points off your score for each pull.

And if you already have financing lined up for a car loan, you would be crazy to walk into a dealership with your reports not frozen  They will say what they will say, but if they can find a way to pull your reports, even if you say no (and they don't even need an SS number in some cases) and later they will say "whoops, sorry," but since it was their lenders and not them who pulled the reports, they have no power to undo the damage.

Ever heard of somebody calling their existing lender (say Discover or Citi or anybody) and asked the CSR if it is a soft pull, only to get an HP alert the next morning?  That could not have happened had you not foolishly left your reports unlocked.  You have no one to blame but yourself and nine times out of ten the lender will not agree to remove the HP.