topic Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit in Credit Cards

Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 08:24:42 GMT

has anyone ever tried this?

I am getting a lil bit creative here, so I applied for the Amex Blue Cash Preferred today and I got the approval.

can I freeze my credit now, so they won't be able to do a hard enquiry in 20 days from now?

are they going to close my account?

I need my credit file now or maybe in a month, and I can't afford to have a hard enquiry on it.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

sznthescore — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 05:57:02 GMT

Freezing/locking and unfreezing/unlocking your credit is totally at your discretion. Seeing as they have already granted your approval, IMO I would say that it is safe to now re-freeze/re-lock your report(s).

If a lender needs to look at your file again, and sees that it is frozen, they'll reach out to you for you to unfreeze/unlock.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 08:22:17 GMT

so you would think freezing my files will prevent them from putting a hard enquiry?

and this is not new to me, although I have never tried it to see if it works, for exmaple arond a year ago I applied for a loan and I got instant approval for 30K unsecured.

and they hard pulled my credit 3 weeks later, I was like if I knew I would have locked my credit.

any actual experience?

So this is the formula: 99% of instant approvals whether loan or a CC doesn't involve a hard enquiry until later(3 weeks usually)

but the ones that tell you we got to look further, they put a hard enquiry on your report instantly...

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

sznthescore — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 08:28:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
so you would think freezing my files will prevent them from putting a hard enquiry?

and this is not new to me, although I have never tried it to see if it works, for exmaple arond a year ago I applied for a loan and I got instant approval for 30K unsecured.
and they hard pulled my credit 3 weeks later, I was like if I knew I would have locked my credit.
any actual experience?

O I C I've never experienced something like that. I'm under the impression in order to say that you are approved your credit file had to be evaluated. Within three weeks the card should be in your hands. I don't see a need to hard pull your credit file again. Even if so, their now a creditor and can soft pull your credit at anytime hence "Account Review". Maybe we can get some help from EXPERIENCED AMEX accountholders to chime-in on their experiences. This is new to me. I've NEVER had an Amex. My information was in general....

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

coldfusion — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 10:17:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
so you would think freezing my files will prevent them from putting a hard enquiry?

and this is not new to me, although I have never tried it to see if it works, for exmaple arond a year ago I applied for a loan and I got instant approval for 30K unsecured.
and they hard pulled my credit 3 weeks later, I was like if I knew I would have locked my credit.
any actual experience?

So this is the formula: 99% of instant approvals whether loan or a CC doesn't involve a hard enquiry until later(3 weeks usually)
but the ones that tell you we got to look further, they put a hard enquiry on your report instantly...

That isn't how things work. Your application gives them permissible purpose to perform an inquiry in order to make a credit decision but once they made the decision, whether approval or denial, the permissible purpose no longer exists (unless you ask for a reconsideration of a denial). It may have taken 3 weeks for the inquiry to be reported and/or detected by whatever tool(s) you use to monitor your credit activity.

Since you've been approved it's OK to re-freeze your reports. Having your reports frozen won't prevent AMEX from performing their normal monthly soft pulls in order to review the current status of your credit profile.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

NRB525 — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 12:20:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
has anyone ever tried this?
I am getting a lil bit creative here, so I applied for the Amex Blue Cash Preferred today and I got the approval.
can I freeze my credit now, so they won't be able to do a hard enquiry in 20 days from now?
are they going to close my account?
I need my credit file now or maybe in a month, and I can't afford to have a hard enquiry on it.

Congrats on the BCP approval.

Can you expand on the scenario where a single HP on EX makes any difference to another lender?

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 12:39:55 GMT

Hard inquiries are instant. The only time I've seen a delay is with the Apple card which could be a few hours to a couple days. The only way your scenario would come into play is if an app went to review and the underwriter pulled a second time.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

GatorGuy — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 14:55:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
has anyone ever tried this?
I am getting a lil bit creative here, so I applied for the Amex Blue Cash Preferred today and I got the approval.
can I freeze my credit now, so they won't be able to do a hard enquiry in 20 days from now?
are they going to close my account?
I need my credit file now or maybe in a month, and I can't afford to have a hard enquiry on it.

Amex is more than fair with their SP vs HP. After you are approved for your first card, everything after is usually only a SP including applying for new cards and CLIs.

I don't understand your concern but once approved you definitely can freeze your accounts.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

joltdude — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 15:35:28 GMT

@Anonymous

You already took the HP for the application if there was going to be one....

You can lock your report but now they can SP to their hearts content .....

BTW your not being creative, or clever ... you apped for credit, you should expect an HP... if the reports are locked, and they can't HP, they will notify you and possibly close the account... but that is not absolute ...locking your reports after an approval usually is trying to close Pandora's Box...

That said some folks have tried before apping... and rare instances its worked, but the usual result is, call you to unlock reports or even closing your account...

-J

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

xenon3030 — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 15:44:53 GMT

Lock/freeze your credit profiles after completing any CC or loan application (after receiving the approval letter). If they want follow-ups after, they will contact you later.

It is better to treat the credit profile as a personal property and allow access to it only at the time that you approve.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Red1Blue — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 15:56:44 GMT

It is okay to freeze and unfreeze the reports. If you are not apping for new cards, my suggestion is to freeze the reports, As per Amex since you are already approved for the card if they need they can do a soft pull on your report as you already have the account with them. I froze all my 3 reports for more than a year now. I unfroze TU for about a week each time total 2-3 times when I applied for CLIs on my existing cards.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 16:57:36 GMT

@coldfusion wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
so you would think freezing my files will prevent them from putting a hard enquiry?

and this is not new to me, although I have never tried it to see if it works, for exmaple arond a year ago I applied for a loan and I got instant approval for 30K unsecured.
and they hard pulled my credit 3 weeks later, I was like if I knew I would have locked my credit.
any actual experience?

So this is the formula: 99% of instant approvals whether loan or a CC doesn't involve a hard enquiry until later(3 weeks usually)
but the ones that tell you we got to look further, they put a hard enquiry on your report instantly...
That isn't how things work. Your application gives them permissible purpose to perform an inquiry in order to make a credit decision but once they made the decision, whether approval or denial, the permissible purpose no longer exists (unless you ask for a reconsideration of a denial). It may have taken 3 weeks for the inquiry to be reported and/or detected by whatever tool(s) you use to monitor your credit activity.

Since you've been approved it's OK to re-freeze your reports. Having your reports frozen won't prevent AMEX from performing their normal monthly soft pulls in order to review the current status of your credit profile.

best answer on earth!!

It may have taken 3 weeks for the inquiry to be reported and/or detected by whatever tool.

there are times when I click the submit button in less than 10 seconds credit karma pops, we've detected hard inquiry on your report or somebody accessed your report.

and there are times when I click the submit button it takes on avg 2 to 3 weeks, sometimes avg 4 days for credit karama to pop a hard inquiry alert.

I don't know why it behaves like that but wht CFusion mentioned should be the case and in that case putting a sec freeze obviosly won't cut it.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 17:44:29 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
has anyone ever tried this?
I am getting a lil bit creative here, so I applied for the Amex Blue Cash Preferred today and I got the approval.
can I freeze my credit now, so they won't be able to do a hard enquiry in 20 days from now?
are they going to close my account?
I need my credit file now or maybe in a month, and I can't afford to have a hard enquiry on it.
Congrats on the BCP approval.

Can you expand on the scenario where a single HP on EX makes any difference to another lender?

thx

I might not know about different aspects of credit.

but I know what creditors are looking for, and how instant approval algroithms work and how your credit profile should be look like

and the genius is to pull the best approvals with low aged credits like mine(2.5 years old)

not with a 10 year.

on a 10 year mortagagaged credit it's not as important to have 1 recent HP on your report as it is important on a 2.5 old profile.

again if you have a good(avg) history, by avg and history I mean only time, it's your default duty to not have any bad markings on your profile ofc, as long as you're 45 days or 1 month away from a hard pull, you must be good enough.

but the best is to not have HP for the past 12 month when you go about shopping a big thing like 60k or 100k line of credit.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

OmarR — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 16:57:39 GMT

I've always done a 24 hour un-freeze that automatically re-freezes at midnight with all of my apps.

I've never had a problem.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 17:03:53 GMT

@OmarR wrote:
I've always done a 24 hour un-freeze that automatically re-freezes at midnight with all of my apps.

I've never had a problem.

awesome trick!

is there a one tool unlock all that you know of, I need to do 4 calls for each lock unlock process...

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

OmarR — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 18:12:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@OmarR wrote:
I've always done a 24 hour un-freeze that automatically re-freezes at midnight with all of my apps.

I've never had a problem.
awesome trick!
is there a one tool unlock all that you know of, I need to do 4 calls for each lock unlock process...

I go online to each of the 3 websites. It takes me about one minute for each one.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 19:39:04 GMT

@OmarR wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@OmarR wrote:
I've always done a 24 hour un-freeze that automatically re-freezes at midnight with all of my apps.

I've never had a problem.
awesome trick!
is there a one tool unlock all that you know of, I need to do 4 calls for each lock unlock process...

I go online to each of the 3 websites. It takes me about one minute for each one.

I remember for online portal credit freeze I need to be a member and there is a fee for that..

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Sax2610 — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 19:55:08 GMT

@Anonymous congratulations which CR was used by Amex for the approval

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

OmarR — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 20:08:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@OmarR wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@OmarR wrote:
I've always done a 24 hour un-freeze that automatically re-freezes at midnight with all of my apps.

I've never had a problem.
awesome trick!
is there a one tool unlock all that you know of, I need to do 4 calls for each lock unlock process...

I go online to each of the 3 websites. It takes me about one minute for each one.
I remember for online portal credit freeze I need to be a member and there is a fee for that..

If you go straight to each website (Equifax, Transunion, Experian) they are no longer allowed to charge a fee for freezing/unfreezing.

Re: Freezing the credits after Applying for a credit

Sax2610 — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 20:15:07 GMT

@OmarR Experian wants to charge to lock profile 19.99 a month do you a link tbats is free?.