Consumer Cellular Hard Pull WITHOUT Permission

[vV35Hszm]

These bastards... I applied for service with them just to get sim cards to port to another carrier.  They asked for my social.  I said I was from Canada and I didn't have one... yet somehow they STILL did a hard pull.  I'm so pissed, and I have disputed it to no success.

[RobertEG]

The FCRA is structured explicitly to permit creditors and businesses to pull credit reports without obtaining express authorization from the consumer.  Otherwise, credit and business transactions would come to a crawl.

What is required is that the inquiree provide a statement of their permissible purpose, and if it is one of the purposes set forth under FCRA 604, then they can obtain the credit report without consumer authorization.

A permissible purpose is for any business transaction initiated by the consumer that has a reasonable business need for review of your credit report as part of their consideration of the transaction.

Cellular service is a well-recognized business transaction that comprises a legitimate business need to review the consumer's credit.

You can sue if you challenge, but are not likely to prevail.

The normal procedure to remove the effect of credit inquiries is to attempt to get the business to voluntarily get their inquiry recoded as a soft inquiry.  Soft inquiries are not shown in credit reports that are available to anyone other than the named consumer, and thus are not included in credit scoring.

[Anonymous]

Companies don't have to ask or receive your permission to do a hard or a soft pull of your credit.  They just have to have something called "permissable purpose."  That basically just means that you are requesting to do business with them and they have grounds for believing that people with bad credit reports pose a greater risk to them in general than those who do not.  With permissable purpose, it is the law that is giving them permission, not the individual consumer.

Cell phone companies, cable TV companies, internet service providers, and utility companies often pull credit reports when a person requests service (of most any kind) with them.  All four are widely understood by the CRAs to have permissable purpose (as are insuance companies).

And yep, such a company does not need your SS number to pull your credit report. 

Disputing inquiries is almost never successful even when a company clearly ought not to have done a hard pull.  E.g. even when a rep mistakenly tells you in advance that no hard pull will be done.  In your case it sounds like they made no such promise, but you (understandly) believed that failing to give them an SSN would prevent it.

The good news is that the impact to your credit score will be small (e.g. 5 points), and it will likely affect only one bureau, and it the scoring harm will vanish completely after 1 year.

[vV35Hszm]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Companies don't have to ask or receive your permission to do a hard or a soft pull of your credit.  They just have to have something called "permissable purpose."  That basically just means that you are requesting to do business with them and they have grounds for believing that people with bad credit reports pose a greater risk to them in general than those who do not.  With permissable purpose, it is the law that is giving them permission, not the individual consumer.

Cell phone companies, cable TV companies, internet service providers, and utility companies often pull credit reports when a person requests service (of most any kind) with them.  All four are widely understood by the CRAs to have permissable purpose (as are insuance companies).

And yep, such a company does not need your SS number to pull your credit report. 

Disputing inquiries is almost never successful even when a company clearly ought not to have done a hard pull.  E.g. even when a rep mistakenly tells you in advance that no hard pull will be done.  In your case it sounds like they made no such promise, but you (understandly) believed that failing to give them an SSN would prevent it.

The good news is that the impact to your credit score will be small (e.g. 5 points), and it will likely affect only one bureau, and it the scoring harm will vanish completely after 1 year.

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The annoying part is, had they told me, I would NOT have done business with them.  I told them I didn't have a social security number and they said that was ok.

[Anonymous]

Yup, I totally get you.  You are not alone, pal!

[Physh1]

So, while I totally understand you don't like the pull, you should have expected at least 1 pull. I googled them and a hard pull is common with Consumer Cellular. You really should go into anything like this expecting a pull, or at least researching the chance of a pull.

[DaveInAZ]

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@vV35Hszm wrote:

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The annoying part is, had they told me, I would NOT have done business with them.  I told them I didn't have a social security number and they said that was ok.

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Sales reps are often not the most honest people. I signed up for DirecTV a couple years ago. I balked when the rep asked for my social security #, saying "I'm not applying for credit". The rep countered that they were sending several hundred dollars of equipment to me. I countered "Yeah, to my home that I own, and I've given you my credit card # to pay the bill". Rep then sighed and said "the last 4 digits will be enough" - it was, for a hard pull.

They don't need your SS# to pull your credit, often your name & address is enough, plus your date of birth is more than enough. I think it's BS, but pretty much every cable/satellite/mobile phone company will hard pull your credit report. I got even with DirecTV by cancelling the day my 2 year contract expired. Now I use free over the air broadcast TV by antenna supplemented by no contract monthly streaming on SlingTV in the fall for ESPN and football, and pre-paid Tracfone cell phone. Tracfone works for me as talking is the least thing I use my phone for, I use it far more for free data on my home wifi. And I got rid of my landline for free Google Voice with a VOIP adaptor, and even use the free Google Voice for outgoing calls on my Tracfone, I just use the Tracfone service for incoming calls with a free call blocker app to block the incoming robocalls.

The cell phone & TV utilties ought to get their act together and create a company like Chex or EWS for utilities that just shows inquiries & any negative info. They don't need to know how much much my car or mortgage payment is or what my American Express balance is just for utility service.

[vV35Hszm]

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@Physh1 wrote:

So, while I totally understand you don't like the pull, you should have expected at least 1 pull. I googled them and a hard pull is common with Consumer Cellular. You really should go into anything like this expecting a pull, or at least researching the chance of a pull.

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Hold up - please understand what happened.  They asked for my social.  I specifically told them I didn't HAVE a social security number and I wasn't from this country (I lied).  They told me they could set up my account without one which was my goal.  I had no idea they could or would do a hard pull with just a name and address.

[Anonymous]

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@DaveInAZ wrote:

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@vV35Hszm wrote:

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The annoying part is, had they told me, I would NOT have done business with them.  I told them I didn't have a social security number and they said that was ok.

---

Sales reps are often not the most honest people. I signed up for DirecTV a couple years ago. I balked when the rep asked for my social security #, saying "I'm not applying for credit". The rep countered that they were sending several hundred dollars of equipment to me. I countered "Yeah, to my home that I own, and I've given you my credit card # to pay the bill". Rep then sighed and said "the last 4 digits will be enough" - it was, for a hard pull.

They don't need your SS# to pull your credit, often your name & address is enough, plus your date of birth is more than enough. I think it's BS, but pretty much every cable/satellite/mobile phone company will hard pull your credit report. I got even with DirecTV by cancelling the day my 2 year contract expired. Now I use free over the air broadcast TV by antenna supplemented by no contract monthly streaming on SlingTV in the fall for ESPN and football, and pre-paid Tracfone cell phone. Tracfone works for me as talking is the least thing I use my phone for, I use it far more for free data on my home wifi. And I got rid of my landline for free Google Voice with a VOIP adaptor, and even use the free Google Voice for outgoing calls on my Tracfone, I just use the Tracfone service for incoming calls with a free call blocker app to block the incoming robocalls.

The cell phone & TV utilties ought to get their act together and create a company like Chex or EWS for utilities that just shows inquiries & any negative info. They don't need to know how much much my car or mortgage payment is or what my American Express balance is just for utility service.

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Your wish is my command ... check this out: National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange, Inc. (NCTUE)  Just what the doctor ordered!

[Anonymous]

The only success I have ever had getting an inquiry changed is when I bought a vehicle at a dealership.

After they ran my credit, I said I would only purchase the vehicle if they removed the inquiry. 

While they did not remove it in a traditional sense, they did have it changed to a soft inquiry.