At&t Services HP - Using driver's license

[Anonymous]

Hello fellow myFICOers,

So I made a rookie mistake yesterday.

I knew never to give my SSN while applying for new services, but At&t managed to successfuly pull off a fast one on me! Now I have a new HP on my EQ report.

Since we are moving, I decided to say goodbye to Comcast and signed up for At&t internet. They have this form/page in the sign up process that says, "let's check your credit", it gives you an option of not entering your SSN but requires you to give them your driver's license number instead. So I did that and low and behold, there is a HP on my EQ report that reads - At&t Services, Inc.-

Two questions for your perusal: 

1. Its very interesting that they were able to acquire a credit report by simply using a driver's license number. This is new to me, and hopfully someone can chime in on this.

2. Now that I have a HP, and trying to get it removed is an uphill battle, can I possibly leverage it to do/apply for something else?

Hopefully, someone else does not make the same mistake I did.

[Anonymous]

1. It's always known that most utilities HP your credit profile, probably not hard to figure out who you are based on your DL.

2. The only AT&T credit card (AT&T Access) is issued by Citi, what do you plan to leverage the HP to apply for?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

1. It's always known that most utilities HP your credit profile, probably not hard to figure out who you are based on your DL.

 It sounds like this is a very well known and interesting approach, when I opened a Comcast account last year, I did give them my DL instead of SSN but they asked for a $100 deposit instead, no credit was pulled then. Same thing with t-mobile around 5-6 years ago without a deposit. 

The follow up question is, can they legaly do this if a SSN is not provided? It just seems pretty odd to me.

2. The only AT&T credit card (AT&T Access) is issued by Citi, what do you plan to leverage the HP to apply for?

Simple answer - I'll take anything now that the HP has already happened. To think about it Citi, or any lender is not going to use a HP/inquiry from a different institution. Had At&t been in the credit business, I would have apped for a credit card. 

---

[Anonymous]

Very annoying.

File it under whatever and move on, though.

[DaveInAZ]

"The follow up question is, can they legaly do this if a SSN is not provided?"

- Yes, I forget the exact wording but when a business has a legitimate reason to check your credit they can do so, and they can pull your credit without your SSN - your driver's license has your name, address & date of birth, that's enough info to pull the correct credit report. A number of years ago I was getting new DirecTV service and balked at giving the rep my SSN. After a bit of back and forth the rep said "OK, the last 4 digits of your SSN will do - it was, to HP my credit report.

I do think it's BS for a utility to pull your credit report just for utility service - how much my car payment and/or mortgage payment is or how many credit cards I have and my balance on them is none of their business. But HP'in your credit report seems to be the standard now.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Very annoying.

File it under whatever and move on, though.

---

Indeed, very annoying.

Yes, I am filing it under whatever and moving on. We dont have any short-term need for credit, and the HP dinging a couple of points is not going to matter in the grand scheme of things. The only thing it will affect is my myFICO goal of hitting 800 this year. Small setback.

[Anonymous]

---

@DaveInAZ wrote:

"The follow up question is, can they legaly do this if a SSN is not provided?"

- Yes, I forget the exact wording but when a business has a legitimate reason to check your credit they can do so, and they can pull your credit without your SSN - your driver's license has your name, address & date of birth, that's enough info to pull the correct credit report. A number of years ago I was getting new DirecTV service and balked at giving the rep my SSN. After a bit of back and forth the rep said "OK, the last 4 digits of your SSN will do - it was, to HP my credit report.

I do think it's BS for a utility to pull your credit report just for utility service - how much my car payment and/or mortgage payment is or how many credit cards I have and my balance on them is none of their business. But HP'in your credit report seems to be the standard now.

---

I feel you, DaveInAZ.

Another burning question - hopefully this thread will come handy so someone in the future.

Why does a utility company such as At&t want to do a credit check for individual's establishing a new account? Will it matter if someone has a score of 580 vs someone else with a score of 800? The price of the services rendered remain the same though. If its a matter of checking the individual's creditworthiness for the sake of ensuring financial feasibility, then there are better ways to manage that.

Also, they are not in the lending/credit business, so why pull a credit report?

It just seems like shenanigans to me.

[Anonymous]

Fico scores are a measure of risk. So why would a utility, phone or rental co care? Because they want to know if they'll get paid every month. If I owe a ton of money to Verizon, don't you think AT&T would want to know. If someone is having a hard time paying a loan or credit card, doesn't it stand to reason they would have difficulty paying other bills. higher risk individuals will often be required to pay a deposit. The price of service for them is more. I can also guarantee companies would not pay to pull your credit if it wasn't in their financial best interest. Short answer, they do it because it works.

[FinStar]

Aside from the legal premise associated with Permissible Purpose, and what @Anonymous mentioned above, a variety of utility companies and service providers report to the CRAs in some states.