Unauthorized inquiry

[starry1]

So yesterday I took my son to the orthodontist and got him all set up to get braces. This morning I get an alert that a company called Microbilt did a hard pull. I called them first thing and they told me the inquiry came from the orthodontist's office. I'm really ticked off because I did NOT agree to a credit pull, the subject never even came up, and I certainly did not sign anything to authorize it.  About the only thing I can think of is the privacy policy, but it only went over HIPAA stuff and that they might share some limited info with colleagues. I don't remember it saying anything about running my credit, but I will read it more closely when I get home tonight to make sure.

Yes, I'm kind of on a payment plan, they're taking half from my FSA this year and half next year, but I still don't believe that gives them permissible purpose since I'm not making any sort of direct payments. If I end up disputing the inquiry with Experian, what should I say?

I lost 4 points on my TransRisk score, +1 on my VS, and -24 on my auto insurance (huh? you're a better driver if you have good teeth?)

[RobertEG]

The FCRA is constructed such that it provides permissible purpose for credit inquiries without the need for express authorization from a consumer.

Otherwise, business transactions would come to a crawl.

The FCRA lists, under section 604, types of inquiries that have permissible purpose without need to submit express authorization from the consumer.

One such permissible purpose is for business transactions initiated by a consumer for which they have a legitimate business need to assess the consumer's credit.

If a business transaction involves deferral of payment, then that gives rise to a legitimate business need for evaluating the consumer's ability to pay.

It appears to have been done with permissible purpose.

[starry1]

I disagree that it is a deferral of payment. If the process takes two years, then payment is not deferred, the same as with a plumber or handyman or other type of contractor.

[RobertEG]

What they are required to have is some "legitimate business need" for the information in your credit file as part of the business transaction.

You can certainly contest that issue based on the facts of your transaction.  That is a factual issue of which I have no basis for an opinion.

To pursue the issue, you will have to file a dispute with the CRAs, who are the party who accepted their statement of permissible purpose.

You cannot pursue a direct dispute with the creditor, as disputes over credit report inquiries are exempted from the direct dispute process.

[mmmlive1999]

I had this happen to me 2 weeks ago and sent a stern letter directly to the business advising them that they had 24hrs to reverse the inquiry or change it to a soft pull because I had not authorized a credit pull. It worked like a charm! The inquiry vanished in 3 days. If you would like the letter PM me, no guarantees but it is worth a shot.