Citibank Failed Recon - Unauthorized Hard Pull

[Anonymous]

So in an effort to continue to rebuild my credit, I applied for a Citibank CC.  Having Citi as my primary bank for checking, I figured why not.  So I applied and received a recieved a notice indicating that my credit utilization was too high and they would not approve it.  Specifically, at the time of the application, my HSBC BB credit card had a high balance (needed to buy a new TV).   When they pulled the credit report at the time of the application, it showed my utilization at 84%.  Afterwards, I had made a significan payment and the percentaged dropped down to 46% and asked for a reconsideration and now there is a zero balance on the card as of this morning.   Seeing that after I checked my FICO equifax score, it turned out to be 727 last week, I had faxed a copy of the updated credit report for a recon.  When they received the documentation, they in turn performed another hard pull (without my authorization) and still rejected the card application.    the only way I found out was through an alert on my credit report indicating a Citi Hard Pull.  So without a doubt, this is absolutely infuriating.  If they would have asked to do a hard pull, I would have denied it and accepted the rejection and just continued to garden with the three cards I have.   So at this point, I will just continue to garden.  I also plan to switch banks as a result of this debacle.   The bright side is now I have three CC's now (two of which were appoved in the last month, which are not reporting yet) and I have zero intention to apply for new credit for the next 6-12 months, with my eye on AMEX.  

Trade Lines as of 6/21:

HSBC Bestbuy -   $2400 Limit  (Instant Approval 11/10)

Cap1 Platinum -     $500 Limit  (Instant Approval 6/11)

Chase Freedom- $2000 Limit  (Recon Approval 6/11 )

[cdtotten]

Others may have more specific information, but it is my understanding that by requesting a recon on the account, you are authorizing Citi to repull your report if necessary. Now, most companies will just review the original report and won't bother with a new pull, but since you are requesting a recon based on an updated report, they probably had to. They cannot use a report that you sent to them, because they don't know if you doctored it at all. I could personally take a report, make some changes to it and show I have an 800 credit score, but that isn't the case.

I believe if you hadn't requested the recon based on the change in util, they wouldn't have repulled, but your request triggered it.

[n777ua]

I was under the impression that all recon's require a new hard pull -- I've only done 2 recons in my life, but the card company has always advice me they will likely pull another credit report.

[Achase]

Id dispute the second pull with equifax because citi does ask you to fax them every page of the updated report but they don't say anything about pullin the report again so I'd just dispute it as an unauthorized inquiry

[smc733]

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@Achase wrote:
Id dispute the second pull with equifax because citi does ask you to fax them every page of the updated report but they don't say anything about pullin the report again so I'd just dispute it as an unauthorized inquiry

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Whenever you apply for credit, or make any request, including reconsideration, the creditor is always authorized to perform a hard pull.  That dispute will 100% get verified as accurate.

[Anonymous]

SMC,

That may be the case; however, my issue is if they had told me from the outset when I was submitting for a reconsideration that a hard pull would be performed, I would have just said no thank you.  That said, I will attempt to get equifax to scrub that inquiry from my report, none the less, I will be in garden mode (hopefully) for the next year. 

[wollepopolle]

Have you received the second letter with the reasons for the denial yet? It might well be because you had too many recent inquiries (which is ironic because one of them is theirs).

[smc733]

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@Anonymous wrote:

SMC,

That may be the case; however, my issue is if they had told me from the outset when I was submitting for a reconsideration that a hard pull would be performed, I would have just said no thank you.  That said, I will attempt to get equifax to scrub that inquiry from my report, none the less, I will be in garden mode (hopefully) for the next year. 

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They don't have to tell you.  I doubt the attempt will work.  Nonetheless, I do agree with you, and sympathize entirely...

[UFGuy2006]

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@Anonymous wrote:

SMC,

That may be the case; however, my issue is if they had told me from the outset when I was submitting for a reconsideration that a hard pull would be performed, I would have just said no thank you.  That said, I will attempt to get equifax to scrub that inquiry from my report, none the less, I will be in garden mode (hopefully) for the next year. 

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I tend to agree with SMC's comments. If you are going into garden mode... then I'd say disputing it won't be worth the hassle. Personally, I'd let it just fall off in due time.

[cashnocredit]

Could be worse.

I got a Citi secured 2 years ago. It has a 18 month cd as the security. At 17 months and without my knowledge or request to have it unsecured  they hard pulled twice when reviewing the account. This seemed unusual but they are clearly allowed to do it.

That said I love the Citi card. Easy to use. Great virtual CC capabilities. Easy to manage.