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Sears & HSBC (Best Buy) inquires

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Sears & HSBC (Best Buy) inquires

Hi, I'm new here, not necessarily to credit but certainly want to improve.  My $ history is good thanks to a steady job and discipline from the service which I retired from in 2007.  Now I want to keep it that way & still work fultime. This is a great site and I'm glad I found it, been searching and reading & now have a question.

Recently I pulled My CR (Experion) from the annual gov site.  It shows a bunch of hits from both Sears & Best Buy over the last year.  These cards I have & are PIF.  I only used them for appliance and electronic 0% promotions.  I tried getting online with BB & it wouldn't let me saying my account has been re-evaluated.  Also on the CR it shows my CL now at $304?  Whatever.  Also, BB has been slamming my emai with their "offers".  Sears not so much but they sent me that letter saying the interest rate was now a gazillion percent.  I did not opt out because I do not use the card like that but I don't want them checking my credit anytime they want to either.  Sooo, my question is do I keep these cards?  How do I stop them the inquires?  Advice from those who have gone before me please.  

FWIW my credit is very good, I have two revolving CC's (USAA/Cap One) w/ 10k limits each PIF/used regularly & only these two other store cards which I hardly use.  Anyway would like to make the store cards stop inq. Any input is appreciated.

Message 1 of 5
4 REPLIES 4
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Sears & HSBC (Best Buy) inquires

I'm assuming that these are soft inquiries ("viewable only by you"), not hard, right?

As long as you are a customer of Sears and BB, they have the right to soft you for acount review purposes, as do all your current creditors. It is possible that these softs weren't account review/ maintenance inquiries, which see your whole report, but just promo inqs, which just get some basic demographics, but since both lenders have taken AA against you, that's not likely. Experian is the only credit report that doesn't indicate which type of soft is being made; gee thanks, EX.

If I may ask, what's going on with your report that both companies have started going after you? --and please feel free to tell me to mind my own business! Smiley Very Happy It sounds like you might have some high balances or something going on. On the other hand, as they're both store cards, maybe it's just that since you're not using them, they're trying to ease you on out. HSBC (the BB card) will drop and punt you in a heartbeat for non-usage.

I wouldn't care if Sears or BB went after me (I have both), but if there was something on my credit reports that made USAA unhappy with me, I'd have a stroke. Smiley Surprised
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 2 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Sears & HSBC (Best Buy) inquires

Thanks for the reply Hauling.  No issues with you asking, I posted it up so its cool Smiley Wink 

I haven't used sears/BB cards in the last couple of years, have zero balances & were pif IAW the agreement of the 18 mo % interest deals I took advantage of.  My other two revolving CC's, I use & PIF each month. Thankfully no high balances ever, I pay as I go or not buy.   

I did not know that EX's credit report did not clarify between soft/hard inquiries so thank you for that info.  The EX is the only one I asked for.

I suspect then with your insight that the inquiries were to get me to spend $$ with them since I haven't in awhile which follows the email offers.

Just curious is all & maybe I'll use one if these cards once in awhile for a DVD or something and pay if off? 

One of the reasons I was looking at started all this is by reading here and wanting to be more proactive with whats on the report. 

Message Edited by simonator on 09-23-2009 07:53 AM
Message Edited by simonator on 09-23-2009 07:54 AM
Message 3 of 5
haulingthescoreup
Moderator Emerita

Re: Sears & HSBC (Best Buy) inquires

Yes, I agree, I think they're just trying to provoke you into usage of the cards.

To clarify: Experian does clarify which inqs are hards and which are softs. It's the two types of softs that aren't differentiated between one another.

On TU, the softs are shown in two categories labeled Promotional Inquiries and Account Review Inquiries.

On EQ, all the softs are together, but they are marked with prefixes that indicate the type. There's an explanation of the prefix codes listed beneath.
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
Message 4 of 5
Karatz
Frequent Contributor

Re: Sears & HSBC (Best Buy) inquires


@Anonymous wrote:

Hi, I'm new here, not necessarily to credit but certainly want to improve.  My $ history is good thanks to a steady job and discipline from the service which I retired from in 2007.  Now I want to keep it that way & still work fultime. This is a great site and I'm glad I found it, been searching and reading & now have a question.

Recently I pulled My CR (Experion) from the annual gov site.  It shows a bunch of hits from both Sears & Best Buy over the last year.  These cards I have & are PIF.  I only used them for appliance and electronic 0% promotions.  I tried getting online with BB & it wouldn't let me saying my account has been re-evaluated.  Also on the CR it shows my CL now at $304?  Whatever.  Also, BB has been slamming my emai with their "offers".  Sears not so much but they sent me that letter saying the interest rate was now a gazillion percent.  I did not opt out because I do not use the card like that but I don't want them checking my credit anytime they want to either.  Sooo, my question is do I keep these cards?  How do I stop them the inquires?  Advice from those who have gone before me please.  

FWIW my credit is very good, I have two revolving CC's (USAA/Cap One) w/ 10k limits each PIF/used regularly & only these two other store cards which I hardly use.  Anyway would like to make the store cards stop inq. Any input is appreciated.


You definately have a lot of stuff you might wanna do and you have a lot going for ya. Best overall advice I can give you is don't do anything till you check here. There's an quite a few guys/girls here who know a ton on what's the best moves as well as what moves are not in your favor. Some of my friends in real life don't read, um don't want to read, so they just ask me what to do. I base my advice on what I see here, and what I've personally experienced. It's worked well for me. So, either educate yourself well before you do anything, or ask before you do anything, either way you won't go wrong then. Smiley Happy

TransUnion/Equifax
746/754
Date: 9/24/2009/10/02/2009
Message 5 of 5
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