Illegal for Lender to use your myFico instead of HP?

[ztnjpv]

Just curious if anyone knows if it's illegal for a lender to just go online in front of you and allow you to update your FICO score with a soft pull instead of a hard inquiry. A local bank where maybe you know the loan officer would make this more feasible but is it LEGAL? 

Anyone know? ANd if it is illegal, anyone know the reasoning behind it? What could be the harm after all?

[llecs]

I think it would only be illegal to pull it without your consent or to pull it under false pretenses (e.g. your lender pretends to be you). There could also be some rule-breaking  within the T&C because it states that a report pull is for personal use only. In my pre-mortgage period while shopping around, I did pull each report and each FICO report and presented those to the lender for consideration. It was for personal use and ultimately they used their own software.

And that's another point, each lender chooses which FICO version they want to use. It's a YMMV on the bank and type of credit product you are applying for. It's not always guaranteed they'd pullthe same version. Also, many lenders will use their own software for use in approvals. These will include so much more than a FICO score like income, DTI, residency, LTV values, and so on. Something to keep in mind if the lender rejects your offer.

[RobertEG]

I dont know about illegal, but clearly as improper as it could be.  I presume that credit reporting agreements between a furnisher and the CRA include a presumption that reporting coming to the CRA is theirs.  Thus, the CRA can rely upon the reporting as an accurate statement by the FURNISHER.

The furnisher of the reported information is the only one authorized to update their reporting.

You have no credit reporting agreement with a CRA, and the furnisher assumes responsibility for the accuracy of their reporting. The FCRA places great reliance on an assumption of accuracy of reported information, and rarely if ever challenges reporting done by an authorized furnisher. 

They made the credit inquiry, not you.  They have on file a statement of permissible purpose under which they made the inquiry.  You are changing that.....

[Anonymous]

I would think within the scope of interviewing potential lenders before actually applying, using your own copies is fine. For example, "Look here on my EQ report... I have one open collection of $X that's Y years old... How will that impact underwriting or what rates I might qualify for?"

But to the above points, for pre-approval and anything after, they'll do their own hard pull I'm sure. Eliminates fraud risk from borrowers (see! My FICO is 845!)

I have no idea on the legal side, probably more of a contractual thing.