TrueCredit - How much risk in pulling too often

[EW800]

I have read a few messages in regards to folks who have had their TC account canceled because of pulling too often. I am wondering if anyone knows if these are rare or isolated incidents, or if this is a common practice of theirs. I have had TC for just over a month now and have pulled nearly every day. I am just wondering how much rick I may be in of getting booted. Thanks!

[smallfry]

There is the additional risk of a split file with Equifax and TU. It is rare but it can happen. More so with EQ than TU I have heard.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there is any risk of them shutting you down anymore. They seemed to have cleared up their mistake and benefit. So pull as often as you want.

On the other hand a split file is real. It usually takes more than 1 year pulling every day to split a file from what I hear. I'd not make a steady habit of pulling every day. Maybe like every other day is better. I pull mine every day around reporting times so thats like 15 times each month. I don't bother pulling on other days since nothing changes, no point.

[EW800]

> On the other hand a split file is real.

This is something that I am not familiar with. What is "split file"?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I'd also like to know what a split file is?  Thanks. 

[haulingthescoreup]

A split file occurs when you have so much data in your file --old accounts, new accounts, hard inqs, soft inqs, you name it --that the software can no longer keep all the information in one electronic file. Some of the excess spills over or splits to form a parallel file. If it's accounts that split off, you can get two wildly varying scores, depending on which portion of the file is pulled for scoring.

Whenever I read where someone's EQ score suddenly went up 53 points, then down 53 points, then up 53 points (insert your own number), I think split. It sometimes happens on TU, but it mainly happens on EQ. It's a good idea to print out one of your full reports. If you file ever splits, fax your older report to EQ (obviously you call them first), and they can re-build your file.

EX seems to have rock-solid, stable software, where everything pretty well stays put, and I'm convinced that's why you see so many of the "prime" CCC's pulling EX. I'll bet they charge prime for it too, so as EQ and TU get their software issues under control, they're going to doing some serious marketing among lenders.

[Anonymous]

If they close you down- you could take legal action

[Anonymous]

Everyone has a primary file that holds X.bytes of data. Usually there is less data then this file is designed for. Once you max out that file with too much data what ever is too much starts a secondary file.

Example.
Social number 000-00-0000.001 FULL
new second file
Social Number 000-00-0000.002 Additional info.

Now the way it works is some of the data from file .001 is transferred to .002. But when you pull your score you are pulling only .001 and anything on .002 looks as if it were deleted but it is still there just under a different file name.

Lets put it in english not computer talk.
Example.
Your CR file may only hold 400 lines of information. Like typing on a piece of paper you can only type so many lines before you run out of paper. Pulling your credit report uses up one of these lines because it leaves a record that you looked at your file as a soft inquiry. So if you had 100 lines used by actual accounts and history and pulled your own credit report 301 times you just split your file since the last pull exceeded the limit of your file length. So a second file is created to split the data between them. It's not actually 400 lines but that explains the split file.

[haulingthescoreup]

Thanks pizza, that's a lot more precise than my version. Whenever I type my version, I'm also waving my arms around a lot, but that doesn't exactly come through on the post.

[Anonymous]

pizza, hauling, thank you both.  both explanations were clarifying.  thanks.