Dealer ran multiple inquires without approval

[Ricky_D]

Been a Honda Financial customer for over 8 years. Started out with a high APR with the last loan being 1.9%.

Decided after two years to trade in for another Honda. Told finance person I only want to deal with Honda Financial as always.

He said a credit app is standard proceedure.  I had a credit freeze on all CBs. Took the freeze off Experian only online with my cellphone. 

The dealer report came back with autoscore 757.

As I sit in the finance office, I get alerts from Experian that inquires from Bank of American, Wells Fargo, Capital One, and a credit union were done along with Honda.  I went ballistic on the guy and he said Honda Financial was offering 5.9% and 1.9% is not offered to anyone anymore. Without asking, they thought it best to try other lenders for a better rate.  I explained that my relationship with Honda is long standing and my accounts have helped my credit score and standing over time. That anytime, I could pay for a car outright in cash. Finance guy says, "your score will improve in 4 months, don't worry."   I looked at him, tore up the contract and said, "I am paying cash."  And that is what I did.

Now, I need to figure out how to get those inquires removed. Maybe call Experian and dispute, or call each bank and explain I did not authorize the inquiry.   ???

[Anonymous]

I peronally would go to the dealership GM and have them call to have those removed.  I remember when I  bought my SUV I wanted to only use Captial One Finance so I wrote down and signed my name - only authorized to run Capital one - and that is all that they ran.   I hope you get it sorted out in your favor.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Sorry, there's not much you can do. When you signed the form, you gave them permission to run your credit. Should they have respected your wishes? Yeah, but what they did would be considered reasonable (because the average person allows it) and completely legal. You could reach out to each lender to ask them to recode to sp. You could also ask the dealership to reach out to the lenders for you, or ask them to provide you something in writing that confirms that it was a mistake. But, they're under no obligation to.

[FICOlearner123]

Sorry you have to deal with this. You can probably dispute, since it's only one bureau you have to evaluate the time you are going to spend to do vs the possible gain, are these going to adversely impact in the 2 year period.

[Azuieldrago]

Unfortunetly, if they have paperwork stating what they were gonna do with no limitations on HPs. You are kinda stuck as they have a signed document vs your word.

[Anonymous]

Those 6 inquiries are only going to count as 1 anyway. You might be able to get them removed but its going to be a lot of work. If the dealer wants to be difficult they will say you signed the paper which gives them permissible purpose. I am going to assume no where did you write in that you are only authorizing one lender. You will see a minor score dip. Its probably not worth you time to fight it,

[Ricky_D]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Those 6 inquiries are only going to count as 1 anyway. You might be able to get them removed but its going to be a lot of work. If the dealer wants to be difficult they will say you signed the paper which gives them permissible purpose. I am going to assume no where did you write in that you are only authorizing one lender. You will see a minor score dip. Its probably not worth you time to fight it,

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After speaking with a very nice person at Experian (they do exist!), I was told It WILL count as 1 inquiry and not to worry.

I did sign the doc to authorize a run, but verbally told the finance guy not to run anywhere else.  He said another finance person ran the credit and he forgot to tell them to just run Honda Finance.

It will be interesting to see what happens now after the car payoff. Currently, auto score 757, Ex 751 fico 8, TU 730 fico 8, EQ 761 fico 8.

All credit cards now showing $0 balances.

[Swatch]

I found that Experian offers single-use PINs to prevent this situation. That only one place can pull with the PIN and then the PIN stops working. But TU and EQ don't seem to offer this, so it can still hurt those. I wish they would do it too.

[Anonymous]

I learned my lesson about relying on verbal agreement with last car purchase. If it's something important to you, get it in writing.

Car was supposed to come with 2 keys, but they could only find 1. No prob, they offered to get another made and would be ready in a week. Then signing all the paperwork they wanted me to sign something stating everything agreed upon had been delivered and they didn't owe me anything. What about the key? Sounds like something they still owe me. Oh no, it's about the vehicle itself, it'll be fine, don't worry about it. Didn't like that but it was getting late and I wanted out of there so I signed.

Call a week later. Sure enough no key ordered and no record of them owing me a key. In fact, they reference the document I signed showing they owed me nothing. I sure felt angry and equally dumb. They wanted $400 for a new key. Took another week of back and forth but they begrudgingly agreed to give me the key no charge. And I learned a valuable lesson.

[Azuieldrago]

Always get it in writing. Never rely on verbal as there is no proof. I wouldn't have signed that until I had the other key. Either they find the missing one or when I get from being shipped.