Opt Out

[RobertEG]

Even if your simply opt out, your age of accounts, payment history, etc has changed... so no direct comparison.

Opt out is not a scoring factor that I have ever seen as even the remotest of FICO scoring factors.

[fused]

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@RobertEG wrote:

Even if your simply opt out, your age of accounts, payment history, etc has changed... so no direct comparison.

Opt out is not a scoring factor that I have ever seen as even the remotest of FICO scoring factors.

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Agreed, Robert!

[vanillabean]

emtutusa wrote:

"My mortgage guy said yesterday that I can pull a 5-8 point increase if I opt out. Does anyone know if this is true from personal experience?"

Sorry, I'm a newcomer. Of what are you opting out?

[Travis-84]

Also, another way credit bureaus make money is by selling your information to credit card companies.  Although they are willing to allow people to opt out, I doubt they would allow their formula to award you for it.

If you got a few points for opting out, more people would do it, and revenue would go down, so for that reason alone, I doubt they would give you points for it.

[smallfry]

I can't believe anyone would believe opting out would change your score. That's a mortgage guy?

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

"My mortgage guy said yesterday that I can pull a 5-8 point increase if I opt out. Does anyone know if this is true from personal experience?"

Sorry, I'm a newcomer. Of what are you opting out?

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"Opting-out" is when you elect to not receive offers of credit, insurance, etc. These offers come from lenders and insurors buying general profiles of consumers' credit via the "promo" soft inquiry prefix. They get a very general idea of what your credit is like, and your name and address, etc. This is where all that junk mail comes from.

Opting out can reduce temptation on your part, and many think that it makes their credit a bit more secure, by not risking having offers go astray in the mail. And btw, these offers are based on very general pictures of your credit profile, and many who accept the offers get denied, once the lender pulls the full report.

But opting out isn't involved in scoring, and as mentioned above, that's not much of a "mortgage guy", lol.

[MarineVietVet]

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@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

"My mortgage guy said yesterday that I can pull a 5-8 point increase if I opt out. Does anyone know if this is true from personal experience?"

Sorry, I'm a newcomer. Of what are you opting out?

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HTSU did her usual great job of explaining things. Here is the link to opt out:

Opt Out/Opt In Credit Reports (or call 1.888.567.8688)

From a BK years ago to:
9/09 EX pulled by lender 802
3/10 EQ- 800
4/10 TU -772

You can do the same thing with hard work

Credit Scoring 101
Common Abbreviations
Frequently Requested Threads
Whats In Your FICO Score

[vanillabean]

haulingthescoreup a.k.a. Moderator Emerita wrote:

""Opting-out" is when you elect to not receive offers of credit, insurance, etc."

Thank you very much for your detailed response. I'm back on track now. Yes, I know what it is, and when I first read about optoutprescreen.com in a personal finance column, I was surprised at how few credit card offers we have received in the mail; I assume the default status is In.

Windows shopping can be kind of fun, so I left the door open for more offers. There's no way I'll ever accept any of the them because the credit limits are generally low.

Browsing the faq, I noticed the following (but the question has already be fully answered here).

"Does Opting-Out improve my credit score?
No, since inquiries for firm offers for credit or insurance are not used in calculating credit scores, Opting-Out does not improve your credit score. Similarly, inquiries for firm offers for credit or insurance do not reduce your credit score."

[RobertEG]

To get legal for a minute, and supplement all that has been said, promotional offers for credit are the single, and sole form of credit inquiry that is specifically regulated by the FCRA, and blocks access to your full credit report. FCRA 604(c)(2).

It is the only statutory so-called "soft pull."  It is coded as a PRM inquriry.

Other types of access to your full credit report give the requestor the full right to your entire credit report.

But promotional offers for credit not solicited by the consumer are regulated under FCRA 604(c)(2), linits what the CRA can provide to the inquiree to only the name an address of the consumer. 

If you enjoy receiving promotional offers, they cannot legally harm your credtit score.

You opt out primariluy to prevent junk mail, not for legal or FICO reasons.

[vanillabean]

Timothy Moderator Emeritus once wrote:

"They (potential creditors) get the same information on a Hard as the do a soft- the only exception is a PRM soft inq where they get a name, and address.

Nothing in the FCRA or FDCPA separates soft and hards inq's."

Hard pull vs. Soft pull
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Hard-pull-vs-Soft-pull/td-p/98097

RobertEG wrote in this thread:

"To get legal for a minute, and supplement all that has been said, promotional offers for credit are the single, and sole form of credit inquiry that is specifically regulated by the FCRA, and blocks access to your full credit report. FCRA 604(c)(2)."

I have two questions:

If what they get is not the full content of the credit reports, then which partial information is it exactly?

If you opt out, does that mean that they can't access this information, or will only a freeze accomplish that?