Prescreen opt out questions

[Anonymous]

1. Will opting out prevent me from getting free FICO scores that are a benefit of my existing cc or credit union accounts?  2. Will opting out prohibit my existing ccs from auto CLI?  3. Will opting out prevent sites like Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, Credit.com etc from updating?  4.  Will it prevent me from getting new accounts with NASA FCU since they do soft pulls?  Or do those type of inquiries fall outside of the Opt-Out Prescreen umbrella?

[GoldSorata]

No. Opting out wont prevent you from any of those things.

I've been opted out for 10+ years and able to do all of those

[RobertEG]

Creditors are able to proivde a listing of screening criteria to CRAs, and request a listing of consumers who meet their stated criteria

The CRA can only proivde a listing of names and addresses.  They cannot provide any account specific information.

It's a way of avoiding sending of many promotional offers to consumers who have little or no chance of approval.

It is a way to then make offers for new credit that are mor likely to be approved.  The "penalty" a creditor pays for use of this screening service is that they must then make an offer to every consumer on the proivded listing, and their offer must be a "firm offer for credit," defined under the FCRA to mean that the offer must be honored if the consumer applies, and is found upon a review of their credit report to continue to meet the stated criteria.

The consumer has the ability to prevent the CRA from including their name in any such listing proivded by a CRA.

That is the extent of what opting-out does.

[Anonymous]

Thank you- that's what I thought, but then I thought about it some more (I tend to overthink things) and started to convince myself that it was closer to freezing- appreciate the feedbanck!