Double Pulls for CC's becoming the norm? - Chase, BOA

[09Lexie]

@LS

It is and I concur.

[Lambo23]

I apped in march for the freedom. They pulled ex and eq. I called to recon for a higher credit limit from 500$ to 2000$ and they pulled ex and eq again and approved the increase.

[boomhower]

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@LS2982 wrote:

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@NJTurnpike wrote:

so hypothetically, let's say i usually keep all my reports locked because I'm "scared" of identity theft. Then I say to myself, hey I want a BCP. Do I:

1. unlock all my reports then apply?

2. go to myFico, research which report they usually pull in my geography and unlock only that one?

If i do the second one, it's unethicial and I'm going to burn in the fires of hell?

Sorry for being facetious here, but really? does everyone HAVE to use products and services the way they were intended by businesses? I really can't take my tennis sneakers and use them for running?

I am almost certain there's nothing in the T&C of EX, TU, and EQ that says you can only lock because you fear identity theft.

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Yes, this is what you should do. 

We can agree to disagree. No one is saying your gonna burn in hell or whatever. It is unethical and if you cant grasp that you are absolutely welcome to do your own thing and everyone else is as well.

Good lord 

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If you live in a state where locking and unlocking is not free I disagree with this.  Spending $10 to unlock and then relock all three reports for a credit card is rediculous, that's some serious money.  Unlocking the report they want to look at is completely acceptable in this situation.  If you live in a state where it's free to do the locks/unlocks then unlocking them all would be acceptable. 

[webhopper]

As several members have pointed out, locking one or more reports for the purpose of manipulating the lender into pulling a more desirable report for credit approval is generally considered unethical behaviour, and should not be suggested or encouraged on the myFICO  forum.

Legitamite reasons for freezing your own credit reports include:

1.  preventing yourself from applying for uneccessary credit by creating additional steps to take before applying

2.  you are a victim of identity theft, or you are concerned about identity theft and do not wish for your credit reports to be accessible to "would-be" theives

I appreciate everyone's comments and discussion on the forum, and can understand why this situation can seem to be a "gray area" for some.

I personally have all three credit reports locked, to prevent identity theft.  In the past, I have paid to have my reports unlocked and re-locked for a breif period so that I can apply for the financial products that I needed at the time.  

It is definately not worth it to pay $30 (for unlocking credit reports) to receive a 10% discount on clothing; however, it is definately worth it to pay for unlocking if, for example, you were going to refinance your house and drop your interest rate by 2.5%  or if you needed to purchase a vehicle.

Thanks!

webhopper

myFICO moderator

[longtimelurker]

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@LS2982 wrote:

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The bottom line is everyone here is free to do as they please but certain things on this forum is not to be suggested as ok or normal. Freezing reports with the intent to block lenders from pulling It is one of them. Ask the mods.

I cant believe im taking this much flack over this, it should be common sense

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I think the flack comes form the word "ethical".   If we just said "against the T&C/spirit of THIS forum (because of the FICO association)" that would be much more understandable, i.e. "we do not discuss that here"

Otherwise we have the thought experiments of "Why is this so different from me asking which lenders pull EX (because my TU is bad)?" or deciding that I really need card X, so I better move to TX because there the issuer pulls EX, whereas in my current location they pull TU

[emptypockets]

For the record, I was only posting that they were doing double pulls so people applying for those cards would be aware BEFORE applying. It is not worth it to me to freeze a report to avoid the double pull. My reports are essentially the same, so it doesn't matter to me. It was just interesting that this seems to be the norm now (for me anyway).

[NJTurnpike]

The "grey area" Webhopper and others have alluded to is all in your intentions (aka in your mind) when you attempt the to apply with 1 or 2 reports locked. If your intention with those locked reports is to to hide less attractive reports, then perhaps there cause to say one is circumventing the spirit of the T&C of applying for credit. If on the other hand your goal is to simply limit the number of HP's you recieve, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that intent. It's called managing your credit profile. OFcourse there's the indentity theft reason as well. I'm sure there's more reason people can come up with.

That said, this is all about what is "in your mind" (your intent) when you commit the action. So beware, the thought police will catch you! 

In the end, if locking your reports is not free or doesn't come as part of your service from viewing your reports by the CRA's for which you already pay, I wouldn't recommend paying for frequent locking and unlocking. Just a waste of money.

In the end, this is a "strategy" that simply can't be too thoroughly discussed because myFICO attempts to make money off of FICO-related products. So I'll leave this as my final comment on the topic.

[llecs]

Thread is locked and under Moderator review.

[llecs]

Hey gang,

In an ideal world, there would be no hard inquiries when we apply for credit. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way and lenders (CCs included) have full discretion as to whether or not they want to pull one report or all three. As consumers we can decide to app or not to app knowing the tradeoffs. 

I know there's talk in here that advocates and suggests freezing one or more credit reports to limit what the lender-to-be sees and to limit the number of inquiries. MyFICO forums higher-ups see this as "gaming the system" which violates the forum's User Guidelines and Terms of Service . Trying to manipulate which report is pulled by freezing particular CRA's is unethical in an attempt to limit or avoid a legitimate inquiry. Certainly talking about freezing reports is OK in terms of ID theft, but promoting it to limit inquiries will lead to zapped or edited posts.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.