@scmami wrote:
I got an alert that I had a new inquiry from my credit union for opening a joint savings account with my 12 year old daughter. My score did not change. I was not told my credit would be pulled. Should I have assumed this? I have an existing checking and savings account with the same credit union.
Hrm, tough to say. I would've assumed that they would if you were opening a joint account with a legal adult, but the bureaus aren't supposed to knowingly keep track of minors, what on earth is the point of pulling the credit of a 12 year old?
It was probably an automated process, you *might* be able to talk them out of it, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I'd certainly ask nicely, but fundamentally I'm pretty certain your daughter isn't legally responsible for any issues that happen with the checking account so it seems sorta pointless and unfortunate in your situation.
Edit: second thought, I think you're stuck. She's 12 now, but in joining the CU, they're going to pull credit for membership reasons. It wouldn't be impossible but for various reasons I wouldn't expect them to not pull credit for anyone under the age of 18,, and then poll their credit at 18 (which still seems sorta laughable) when they can qualify for accounts on their own. I'm not certain how it's setup but it's probably their blanket policy and applies to all CU's most likely, but since you're chasing a mortgage in 1/13, it's worth at least asking, I just don't think you'll get far with it unfortunately and I wouldn't make a huge deal over it... it won't matter much in six months, and on recon you'll probably get bonus points from it by telling the story about trying to teach your daughter fiscal responsibility.
While I agree with your point Robert, every CU in all of human existance to my knowledge does it upon a new member joining. Joint account probably had little or nothing to do with it honestly.
I think the core rationale was that since CU's are only as good as the collective assets of their members, and actually the members own the joint (in theory), and as such they have a reason to pull credit to ensure they're not admitting a deadbeat. It's no different really than a credit check on a job application or apartment rental in that regard, of course I think those are pretty frivolous too, but it's what we're stuck with.