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I just got an alert from Scorewatch for a hard pull from Household Bank. I have a BB Reward Zone MC that I have had since July '09. I have never used it. Paid the annual fee of $59 on time. Balance has been $0 ever since. I had a hard pull on 7/25/09 when I went through the approval process for this card, so this new hard pull really had me concerned because I haven't applied for any new credit with them or called for any type of CLI or ANYTHING!
So, I called Household Bank and asked them what was going on. Here is what a supervisor named Sherry, told me:
1) she verified there was a hard pull done on 11/11/09
2) she put me on hold and said she talked to someone in the account department that claims this hard pull was done because of a 'security risk'
3) she also said it is in the agreement of the BB MC that 'random hard pulls are part of the deal' and that removing it wasn't an option
Am I crazy? I have never heard of this being part of ANY CC aggrement. Hard pulls on a whim. Wow! Soft pulls, not a problem. Whats going on here?
Can anyone fill me in on the legality of this?
@Creditaddict wrote:
once you have credit with a bank, a frozen report does not block them
It would ensure that they only be able to do a soft inquiry.
creditaddict is correct. Here is an excerpt from the Experian freeze rules pertaining to this:
"Consumers in your state have a right to place a "security freeze" on their credit reports, which will prohibit a national consumer credit reporting company from releasing any information in their credit report without the consumer’s express authorization, except to those with whom the consumer has an existing account."
But even if it were a possibilty to put a freeze on my CR and it prevent Household from random hard pulling me, it's a sad day when someone would have to resort to these types of measures to prevent a bank with whom he/she has an account from doing what is in my opinion very unethical practice, such as this.