General Credit Topics

[FutureA-1]

I just received notice of a credit inquiry from a furniture company I owe money to.  Do they have the right to run credit inquiries on me without my permission?

[RobertEG]

Yes.

The FCRA identifies, in section 604, permissible purposes for obtaining a consumer credit report without prior permission of the consumer.

A current creditor has both a legitimate business purpose and the permissible purpose of reviewing an existing account with the consumer.

[bettercreditguy1]

Most certainly. If you bounced a check, wouldn't it be okay for the recipient to check your balances daily to see if the check would clear upon re submission?

[FutureA-1]

It wasn't with a bank. It was a furniture company that I owed money to. The finance company that I still owe money to is the one that did a credit inquiry.

[FutureA-1]

It wasn't a bounced check. It's just that I have an outstanding balance.  After I got layed off they were not willing to accept the amount I could afford so. The payments stopped for 8 months. Why would they need to do a credit inquiry?

[PRC]

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FutureA-1 wrote:

It wasn't a bounced check. It's just that I have an outstanding balance.  After I got layed off they were not willing to accept the amount I could afford so. The payments stopped for 8 months. Why would they need to do a credit inquiry?

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When this happens they're typically checking to see if you have a new phone number or address listed or if you applied for credit recently (i.e. mortgage or car).  Sometimes they do soft pulls but they do have the right to do a hard pull since you have an account with them. 

Hope this helps.

[compassion101]

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PRC wrote:

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FutureA-1 wrote:

It wasn't a bounced check. It's just that I have an outstanding balance.  After I got layed off they were not willing to accept the amount I could afford so. The payments stopped for 8 months. Why would they need to do a credit inquiry?

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When this happens they're typically checking to see if you have a new phone number or address listed or if you applied for credit recently (i.e. mortgage or car).  Sometimes they do soft pulls but they do have the right to do a hard pull since you have an account with them. 

Hope this helps.

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Soft pull I can understand but they have the right to do a hard pull? I thought hard pulls were limited to times we are seeking credit.

[RobertEG]

Except for unsolicited, promotional offers for credit, the FCRA makes no distinction between what a requestor receives, or whether or not it must be included in a consumer's credit report.  Those are administrative issues.  Under the FCRA, the party either has permissible purpose, and thus gets your entire CR, or they dont.

Some so-called "soft pulls" have clear CR codes, such as internal account reviews and consumer pulls of their own credit report, that are well-defined as not being included in credit reports available to others.

Similary, FICO has clearly stated that such inquiries are not included in their scoring.

Others remain a mystery, at least to me, such as how any creditor could provide a permissible purpose for grant of new credit, and yet code it in a way that would exclude it from a consumer's credit report and scoring.

The issue of credit report inquiries is nebulous to the extent that they are expressly exempt from any dispute under the rules governing the direct dispute process.