Need help- Unauthorized hard Pull- Can I do anything?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am new to posting.  I have been lurking for a while and reading posts but did not see anything similar.

I went to a car dealer to purchase a car.  I was not applying for financing from the dealer.  I made that clear.

The salesperson claimed she needed a bunch of personal informtion ( SS, addess, income) because it was required by law for the purchase.

I questioned that but ultimately gave it to her.  I also signed what I think was an auth. to check credit.  Salesperson said it was just aperwork required to complete the purchase.

I should have read it closely but I did not have my glasses.  My fault.

I did not complete the purchase of the vehicle. 

I later found out that dealer ran a credit check. It shows up on my credit report.   I am really, really irritated.  I am very cautious about applying for credit.  I dont like to take score hits unless it fulfils a need. 

the FCRA says that credit inquiries must be made for a permissible purpose.  Since I was not applying for credit from the dealer, I dont see an authorized purpose.

I think I read that FCRA or the Consumer protection Act imposes civil and/or criminal penalties and fines for willfull violations.

Dealer now cant locate my credit application or anything showing that I authorized the check.

They've apologized.  Should I pursue this?  What could come out of it?  The harm ( the credit check) is already  done and I cant undo it.

Its a major car dealer and I have thought about writing to their corporate body but will I just be blown off?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[guiness56]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

This seems to be an item of controversy.  It has happened more than once.

Some say that unless you are buying the vehicle, they cannot do a crediti check.  Others say if you walk on the lot and do a test drive they can.

Since they cannot "find" your application or authorization, I would write the corporate office and ask that they have the inquiry removed.  At the least recoded to a soft pull.

[RobertEG]

Permissible pulls of your CR, definately if authorized by you, are sanctioned under FCRA 604(a).

They dont have to relate only to credit transactions.  FCRA 604(a)(3)(F)(i) authorizes credit pulls in connection with a business transaction initiated by the consumer.

It does not have to result in culmination of that transaction, for obvious reasons.  The credit check is part of their process for deciding wheter to enter into that transaction. So to argue that they can only do a credit check after culmination of sale makes no sense.

I think their credit inquiry was proper and authorized.

If you wish to fight it on the grounds that they no longer have documentation, and they wish to fight back, they will ask you if you ever signed such an authorization, and you will have to say..... I dont know.  They will then simply show that is their normal business practice to first get authorization, creating a legal mess.

By the time you go through all that aggravation and expense, the relatively minor impact of the credit pull will have dissoloved to zero after one year.

Hardly worht the hassle.

[guiness56]

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@RobertEG wrote:

Permissible pulls of your CR, definately if authorized by you, are sanctioned under FCRA 604(a).

They dont have to relate only to credit transactions.  FCRA 604(a)(3)(F)(i) authorizes credit pulls in connection with a business transaction initiated by the consumer.

It does not have to result in culmination of that transaction, for obvious reasons.  The credit check is part of their process for deciding wheter to enter into that transaction. So to argue that they can only do a credit check after culmination of sale makes no sense.

I think their credit inquiry was proper and authorized.

If you wish to fight it on the grounds that they no longer have documentation, and they wish to fight back, they will ask you if you ever signed such an authorization, and you will have to say..... I dont know.  They will then simply show that is their normal business practice to first get authorization, creating a legal mess.

By the time you go through all that aggravation and expense, the relatively minor impact of the credit pull will have dissoloved to zero after one year.

Hardly worht the hassle.

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It's the principal of the matter.  They lied.

[Anonymous]

sue em  it's the American way

[RobertEG]

If you act on sentiment and principal, and bring legal action, and the judge sides with the creditor/defendant, and sees no legal merit in the suit, you may be assessed legal and court costs.

I would be careful about advice to just sue.  Please, first talk to an attorney.

I see benefits as dimininmus when compared with perils.

[frazman]

From the other side, I have 15 yrs in the Auto business, 10 of those in the finance office. If you sign anything before you buy, you prob signed an auth to pull credit. From the dealership side, we can't speak intelligently about prices, (ie; payments) without seeing your credit history. Also if you have less than great credit, secondary banks charge a fee to make a loan to marginal customers, it can be significant, and so affects the price. An experienced sales person, or manager can often make a pretty good guess after 5 min talking to the customer, but there aren't a lot of talented salespeople, or managers out there. (sorry)

The dealership cannot pull your credit without your SSN, so if you gave your SSN, what did you think would happen?

As to being lied to...duh.

[RobertEG]

Thanks, frazman, for your business input.

As a consumer, you at least ackowledged entering into a business transaction.  That alone has entitlement to a credit pull, even if no alleged extension of credit was involved.

[MattH]

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@frazman wrote:

From the other side, I have 15 yrs in the Auto business, 10 of those in the finance office. If you sign anything before you buy, you prob signed an auth to pull credit. From the dealership side, we can't speak intelligently about prices, (ie; payments) without seeing your credit history. Also if you have less than great credit, secondary banks charge a fee to make a loan to marginal customers, it can be significant, and so affects the price. An experienced sales person, or manager can often make a pretty good guess after 5 min talking to the customer, but there aren't a lot of talented salespeople, or managers out there. (sorry)

The dealership cannot pull your credit without your SSN, so if you gave your SSN, what did you think would happen?

As to being lied to...duh.

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What happens if a customer walks in and says in so many words, "I will pay cash for my purchase, so you will learn my SS number on the day of purchase and not before then, and I will never sign any form authorizing a credit check."  Will they actually turn away a prospect who intends to pay cash for that?

[frazman]

Some dealerships have so much corporate bureaucracy, cash customers may walk out, but again that's the talent of the sales staff and management staff too. Most of the time the store has to pull credit with a cash customer to cover its ass.

Customer may have just robbed a bank, he may be under federal indicment (it happened to my store, bad, bad reaction from feds, because the credit report said 'contact US Marshalls office AT ONCE, we didn't ,he had good credit, so we sold the car. Opps.)

And there's the IRS paperwork.

It could be a scam, etc, dealerships have a lot of BS coming at them because of the high ticket items, and because sometimes people are desperate.

There are some wonderful, caring, and honest people in the auto business, and they are some smooth talking socialopaths, who will cheat.

Be an intellent, thinking, buyer, and you will be fine.