topic Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus in Credit Cards

Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 03:47:20 GMT

Today I received a notification from TU that my credit was pulled. Since I was on ice, it concerned me. I pulled my report which I hadn't done since like May of last year and saw it was from 4 months ago. I decided to check all my other alerts since I was in there and noticed that when I had been applying to Amex last year, they were also pulling TU in addition to Ex. They did it for every single app. They didn't pull EQ. I know that it can vary from location with EX being pulled 95% of the time, but I've never heard of them pulling multiple bureaus. Anyone else notice this for your apps? Is this something new? Maybe they did it because I was borderline getting in.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 03:53:42 GMT

Well it would certainly be in line with Chase and Citi who double pull borderline profiles instead of outright denying.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 03:55:30 GMT

Only have one pull on Experian a year and half ago. The 6 new cards since then have not received any hard pulls. Haven't heard of them pulling Trans Union on anyone.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 03:59:44 GMT

Seems it’s not unheard of.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Amex-pulled-Transunion/td-p/5325074

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 04:19:33 GMT

I assume I was borderline when I got in with DG and HH, last month. $1k SL on both. 2 HP on EX only. I suppose it can happen. It is uncommon from what I’ve read, though...

Did it affect any of your apps with TU being frozen?

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 04:21:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Seems it’s not unheard of.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Amex-pulled-Transunion/td-p/5325074

You can always request Amex to have a different bureau pulled, but it's extremely unlikely. I used to do it in the early 2000s. Only once did they pull what I requested. On a recon, I always ask for my EQ to be pulled as it is the most up to date with my deleted collections. In this case, I didn't ask for TU to be pulled. They pulled it along with EX at the same time.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 04:23:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Only have one pull on Experian a year and half ago. The 6 new cards since then have not received any hard pulls. Haven't heard of them pulling Trans Union on anyone.

This was when I was testing the waters because I was formerly blacklisted. Now that I'm in I haven't received a HP.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 04:27:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I assume I was borderline when I got in with DG and HH, last month. $1k SL on both. 2 HP on EX only. I suppose it can happen. It is uncommon from what I’ve read, though...

Did it affect any of your apps with TU being frozen?

My reports weren't frozen at the time, but it would explain my denials from NFCU for too many inquiries. I just assumed it was because I added 5 cards in a short amount of time in addition to an auto loan. Turns out I had an additional 4 inquiries from amex on TU.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 04:52:34 GMT

I misread that. My bad. Thought you said *it* was on ice.

Do you use a Credit monitoring service? CK alerts me almost immediately if any HP on EQ and/or TU. That’s about all it’s good for, though.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 04:59:33 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I misread that. My bad. Thought you said *it* was on ice.

Do you use a Credit monitoring service? CK alerts me almost immediately if any HP on EQ and/or TU. That’s about all it’s good for, though.

That's my bad for wording it badly. It's currently on ice, wasn't at the time.

I have all 3 bureaus, creditwise, Disco's, Chase's, and credit karma, which is why I was alarmed. TU's was the only one that went off.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Shadowfactor — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 05:13:54 GMT

At the beginning of my amex relationship. I applied for a card when I had EX frozen by accident. They pulled TU but when I called, they refused to process the app until I unlocked EX and then pulled that as well.

2 HP’s for a denial.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

RicHowe — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 05:45:30 GMT

If for whatever reason, AMEX is unable to pull EX, they will pull TU and/or EQ. In my situation back in 2017, since I had sworn off credit for over 9 years, I did not have a scorable file at EX and TU so they pulled EQ which actually produced a score they could approve me on. In general AMEX pulls EX exclusively, unless there are circumstances which force them to seek alternative CBs. Thankfully since then all accounts have been SP from EX.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

red259 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 06:17:19 GMT

Amex normally pulls one credit bureau for me from what I remember. I think when people are borderline they pull a second report vs just going with the denial.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 07:01:49 GMT

@RicHowe wrote:
If for whatever reason, AMEX is unable to pull EX, they will pull TU and/or EQ. In my situation back in 2017, since I had sworn off credit for over 9 years, I did not have a scorable file at EX and TU so they pulled EQ which actually produced a score they could approve me on. In general AMEX pulls EX exclusively, unless there are circumstances which force them to seek alternative CBs. Thankfully since then all accounts have been SP from EX.

They were definitely able to pull EX because I got the alerts almost immediately. But, now that it's come up, I don't remember ever getting an alert from TU for pulls. I'm going to have to double-check all my monitoring services.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 17:43:50 GMT

I rarely hear of AMEX pulling anyone other than EX.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 12:56:39 GMT

OP that’s interesting because you and I chatted about your approval at the time and the similarities of our profiles spurred me to apply and get in with the DG and HH just a couple days afterward. They only pulled EX for mine, our scores were very similar, and we both had derogs but they didn’t even look at TU or EQ for me. Wonder what the difference was that made them pull a second bureau for you...

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

LittleSal — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 12:41:31 GMT

Good info!!

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

NRB525 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 17:11:38 GMT

If I read correctly the OP was blacklisted by AMEX for a time. After some of the bureaus cleared the derogatorily, AMEX wanted to confirm that with multiple bureaus to see for themselves.

AMEX (and other banks) do have their own records of cardmember history. They may be required to disregard those old negative items, but they would want to confirm that multiple bureaus also dropped the negative before giving up / disregarding their own historical data.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

HeavenOhio — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 17:18:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Well it would certainly be in line with Chase and Citi who double pull borderline profiles instead of outright denying.

Based on reports here and on a conversation with a customer service rep, Chase appears to decide whom to pull by state. The quality of one's profile seems to have nothing to do with it.

The rep wasn't officially informed of whatever their mystery policy is. She prefaced her explanation by saying, "We're still trying to figure that out." In other words, they're looking at data points just like we do here on the board.

She went on to say that it appears that they pull either EQ or TU with EX as a backup, but that some get away with only having Experian pulled.

Re: Amex Pulling Multiple Bureaus

wasCB14 — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 18:48:58 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
If I read correctly the OP was blacklisted by AMEX for a time. After some of the bureaus cleared the derogatorily, AMEX wanted to confirm that with multiple bureaus to see for themselves.

AMEX (and other banks) do have their own records of cardmember history. They may be required to disregard those old negative items, but they would want to confirm that multiple bureaus also dropped the negative before giving up / disregarding their own historical data.

Some people have reported being blacklisted by Amex for more than 15 or 20 years due to a major default on an Amex card. Baddies would fall off before then. Also, Amex checks its blacklist before pulling a report. Amex would not see if something had fallen off an applicant's credit report if the customer was indeed still blacklisted, because it would not pull a report in the first place.

My understanding is that they rely quite heavily on their old customer records, and that a double pull is simply to gather more data for an applicant who is not blacklisted but whose EX is on the borderline of creditworthiness.