Just freeze them. They do nothing to help you get approved. They're additional agencies that are pulled by US Bank, First Bankcard and others that offer a recommendation of your profile - like in Gladiator, kill or live with this situation being risk or no risk. They do this by looking at your overall applications over the past couple years, inquiries, usage of said cards, how long they're open, etc. and I think possibly even those of people in the same household address (not counting shared buildings such as apartments).
So US Bank will pull EX or whoever, and then IDA and ARS on top. Unlike EX, IDA/ARS will offer an actual recommendation based on your tendencies and those of your spouse/partner. They have popped up from time to time as a churner's nightmare even when they have waited 6-12 months. When you freeze them, they can't be accessed by the bank. They won't ask you to unfreeze them since they already have a report from EX. Then they will have to make their own decision on approving your app, which is more likely to be in your favor.
It's basically an extra step where you might get denied if you have a history of applying for a lot of credit, which is used by a couple banks but not many.
Anyone know what's in these reports? I'm guessing if they're tracking applications they're either receiving lender information directly or doing effectively a tri-merge pull of someone's credit reports and then consolidating that.
Might go order and freeze mine just on general principles. Just what I need, more paperwork.
@-Wade- wrote:
@Revelate wrote:Anyone know what's in these reports? I'm guessing if they're tracking applications they're either receiving lender information directly or doing effectively a tri-merge pull of someone's credit reports and then consolidating that.
Might go order and freeze mine just on general principles. Just what I need, more paperwork.
Rev. I just requested my IDA Report. Here's the link . http://www.idainc.com/
Thanks Wade! Hadn't looked into it yet but isn't hard for me to get that information submitted. Too bad they don't have the same online presense as the CRA's but I suspect it's cheaper for them to do this way.