I was browsing in the store yesterday for a mattress that my Mom plans to buy. I said as much to the sales guy, Bill.
At one point he says to me, let's check to see if you'd qualify yourself for it.
I think, a soft pull? Why not for curiosity's sake?
He said it at least 3 times that doing so would not affect my credit report.
I filled in the basics on a giant tablet screen. Got to where it had big letters that it would not affect my credit report. (Yes yes it's a soft pull, I know, only reason I'm doing this).
Hit the button and pre-qualified for 10k.
Note: Bill put in 10k in requested account field. Then CHANGED my monthly income to more than double.
I didn't like that at all but wasn't planning on actually pulling the trigger so whatever.
Last night, I see an email alert** that I've had a hard check on my credit report. I went into Credit Karma which told me it was by "SYNCB".
!!!! 😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬
What are my options to fight this and get it removed?
There's a weird extra bit. Two checks show, not one. But both by Syncb. Date range 6/23 to 8/19.
I wish it was more accurate because there should be a legit check when I got a Lowe's card a couple months ago. I assume that one is the Lowe's pull and not somehow a double pull.
** It actually came right away but was filed by Gmail into a filter where it doesn't notify me on my phone. I would have raised a great deal of hell right there in the store.
I looked at the screen where it said 10k. Then said nothing more about it. Repeated that my Mom was going to buy it. I was scouting since she is in a wheelchair.
100% never accepted the offer or spoke further about my prequalification.
ETA: Your comment about an account appearing reminded me. Synchrony emailed me right after approving my Lowe's card. I searched my email for Synchrony, no new emails today or yesterday. Also nothing from Ashley's.
Has anyone managed to get a fraudulent hard pull off their report?
@PippiLongstockingWannabe wrote:I was browsing in the store yesterday for a mattress that my Mom plans to buy. I said as much to the sales guy, Bill.
At one point he says to me, let's check to see if you'd qualify yourself for it.
I think, a soft pull? Why not for curiosity's sake?
He said it at least 3 times that doing so would not affect my credit report.
I filled in the basics on a giant tablet screen. Got to where it had big letters that it would not affect my credit report. (Yes yes it's a soft pull, I know, only reason I'm doing this).
Hit the button and pre-qualified for 10k.
Note: Bill put in 10k in requested account field. Then CHANGED my monthly income to more than double.
I didn't like that at all but wasn't planning on actually pulling the trigger so whatever.
Last night, I see an email alert** that I've had a hard check on my credit report. I went into Credit Karma which told me it was by "SYNCB".
!!!! 😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬
What are my options to fight this and get it removed?
There's a weird extra bit. Two checks show, not one. But both by Syncb. Date range 6/23 to 8/19.
I wish it was more accurate because there should be a legit check when I got a Lowe's card a couple months ago. I assume that one is the Lowe's pull and not somehow a double pull.
** It actually came right away but was filed by Gmail into a filter where it doesn't notify me on my phone. I would have raised a great deal of hell right there in the store.
Well hopefully you have some kind of proof about what it said not affecting your credit...without it I think you are SOL. This is also why I keep my reports on ice. If it really was a softpull then it can stay frosty but if they try a HP then I'll know about it for sure and it'll be denied. Hopefully you have learned a valuble lesson with this incident if nothing else.
8/8/25
Good news!
I ended up at a sit n sleep a couple days later with my Mom. When it became apparent that I'd be buying the bed frame, I explained to the sales guy, Casey, what happened and why I was nervous that Synchrony would deny me for an At Home card.
Casey was sympathetic and pointed out that's why he has everyone do the prequal on their own phones. He doesn't touch it until we've accepted the offer and account is created.
He said he wasn't surprised because that Ashley's has a reputation for being sharky. His word choice.
He called Synchrony through the merchant rep who told him that yes there was an opened account for 10k. Rep told him that it was designated Ashley only and he wasn't able to convert it to an At Home. That would have been an acceptable fix for me personally though I'm still going to raise hell at Ashley's.
My Mom and I went and called again ourselves and that Syn rep immediately closed it and flagged it as fraud and said they'd update the credit bureaus too. I don't have to do anything. They did warn it could take up to 60 days for that to propagate.
I then went and did the pre-qualify on my phone and got 7k when I asked for 5k.
I didn't get any email alerts about another hard pull so I'm wondering if they did use the 2 day old hard pull.
If so, then I'm whole in the end because a hard pull on Thursday would have occurred anyways.
So now I just need to watch for a 10k account showing up and that there only be 1 hard pull from Syncb instead of 2.
I am hopeful that Synchrony really does take fraud account opening seriously and will wipe out everything as the rep said.
And yes, it's time to freeze my reports again. I had them open for a reason and now I'm done.
The lesson I did learn was never do a prequal on anyone else's device.
