topic Re: Unauthorized Credit Check From Payoff.com? in Personal Finance

Unauthorized Credit Check From Payoff.com?

HorseTears — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 08:41:51 GMT

Something weird just happened. Several weeks ago, I logged onto Payoff.com just to learn more about their personal loans and whether I might see meaningful savings of consolidating my remaining credit card debt at a lower interest rate. I started filling in an application, but did not proceed all the way and did not authorize a credit check / hard pull. In the subsequent weeks, I've received several follow up emails from Payoff telling me things like there's still time to finish your application and there's still time to get a rate on from Payoff etc. Anyway, I took no further action. Now, today, in my inbox is a message from Payoff telling me...

Thanks for applying for a Payoff® Loan, but at this time, we can’t approve your application.

Here at Payoff, we want you to understand the reasons why we cannot approve your application, so we listed all of the areas to focus on making improvements below. We’re still dedicated to helping you pay off your credit cards.

Additionally, we want you to have a clear understanding of your current credit score. Your credit score notice is attached as a PDF.

And, they attached a PDF explaining that they'd pulled my credit from Transunion and that they could not offer me a loan. So, (a). I never completed the application, (b). never had any further correspondence with them. Their explaination for why they can't offer the loan doesn't make much sense -- my credit score was 760'ish a few weeks ago and now has actually gone up to nearly 780 and my debt-to-credit ratio is low with no delinquencies. I am about to have a new mortgage, but I haven't closed yet so they wouldn't know that. I'm not complaining about that -- I don't want the personal loan. I'm just concerned that they pulled my credit without me completing the application. Anyone else experienced this?

Re: Unauthorized Credit Check From Payoff.com?

coldfusion — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 12:15:53 GMT

Just pull up CK or WalletHub and confirm they didn't perform a hard pull. If they did not there isn't much to get worried about.

Re: Unauthorized Credit Check From Payoff.com?

M_Smart007 — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 14:46:13 GMT

Possibly a SP ?

Re: Unauthorized Credit Check From Payoff.com?

HorseTears — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 15:08:56 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
Possibly a SP ?

Ah, that may be it. I'll have to keep checking to see if a hard pull happened. Can they get your Transunion score and your list of revovlving debt accounts with just a soft pull? Because that data was referenced in the notification.

Re: Unauthorized Credit Check From Payoff.com?

M_Smart007 — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 15:15:40 GMT

@HorseTears wrote:
@M_Smart007 wrote:
Possibly a SP ?

Ah, that may be it. I'll have to keep checking to see if a hard pull happened. Can they get your Transunion score and your list of revovlving debt accounts with just a soft pull? Because that data was referenced in the notification.

I am pretty sure they can get enough data, to qualify you from a SP.

"Soft inquiries, or soft pulls of your credit, are documented incidents that remain on your credit report as well. A soft inquiry will not impact your score. Hard inquiries occur when you apply for a loan, mortgage, credit card. Soft inquiries occur when you review your own credit record, or in some cases when a lender takes a brief but not detailed look at your credit for a credit line increase.

Inquiries are formal reviews of your credit report (credit record) to assess your creditworthiness. Creditworthiness, as the name infers, is an indication to a lender of your record of managing credit provided to you. It tells a lender how reliable you are at complying with payment terms for those who lend you money."