Unauthorized Credit Inquiry - Credco

[Anonymous]

Hi!

If anyone with experience in this area could give me a little direction, it would be greatly appreciated!

The situation is:

I leased a new car for my wife over the summer.  I have 740+ credit and adequate income to qualify for the car(s) we looked at (and pay for them as well).  Because I'm self-employed, and have only been self-employed for the last year, I wasn't able to provide either W2s or pay-stubs proving income.  So despite being "approved" for Tier 1 financing, I wasn't able to meet Volvo's underwriting requirements.  Fine, no problem.  I went ahead and got her an Acura, and everything worked out fine.  

Until I saw, that on the same day, my Experian Report was hard-pulled twice: Once by Volvo Financial Services.  And once by a company called Credco.  I called this Credco outfit, which is apparently a provider of underwriting information etc. to companies considering extending credit.  They looked up the credit inquiry, and informed me it was ordered/pulled by a certain Volvo Dealership.  (I had been dealing with a third-party leasing company that was going to get the car through this dealership.)  Credco informed me that the process is simple: I should contact their client (the dealership) request a Letter of Deletion, have it sent to Credco, and they would submit it to Experian.  

I left 2 messages, a couple of days apart with the financing/underwriting department of the dealership, and did not receive a response.  I contacted Credco and let them know the situation, and they directed me to fax them a letter detailing the situation so it could be address.  I called them today, to confirm that the fax had been received, and the representative today basically told me, that if they're not eventually able to get in touch with their client (the dealership), they'll submit my letter to Experian; however, he informed me it would likely not be sufficient to have it removed.  I asked if there was in fact nothing else they could do to have the inquiry removed - no.  He claimed that his company is merely a software provider, not the actual party pulling the credit, and that's why there was nothing else they could do. 

Sorry for being long winded - I was about to contact Experian myself, but figured I would float this on this really helpful forum first.  How should I go about addressing this?  (I intend to contact the leasing company I used and have them contact the dealership, but I'm not convinced that will really help.)  My credit application was via phone -  I approved my credit to be pulled, but once, not twice.  Given that it was via phone there shouldn't really be any fine print which authorizes them to pull my credit as much as they want, right?  

Any help would be much appreciated!  

[CreditCuriosity]

I bet you signed something saying the dealership could pull your credit which is typically alot of them use Credco as a company, would be suprised if it wasn't a HP on all three bureaus then based off that report they submit iit to  acura or honda finanancing the score they want to use and you get another HP from Acura/Honda financial in this case.. So 4 HP's in total, but if they were coded right it really shoudn't be considered 4, but 1 I believe since it was car shopping and they shoudnt impact your credit as 4, but as 1 pull on each bureau if I am not mistaken..  You might need to explain this to CC companies if you ever have to do a recon due to inquires etc.  Don't think you will get anywhere with getting it removed as I have gone down this road as well.. Iniquires are factual information is what experian will come back with as there repsonse.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your post.  

I didn't sign anything.  As I mentioned in my original post, my entire credit applcaiton was over the phone, including my consent to pull my credit.  I didn't record the call, but I would have never agreed to having my credit being pulled by more than one party (or more than a single tri-bureau report pull).  I happened to be that Volvo and Creco both pulled did a HP on Experian.  And then a few days later, HFS' HP was also Experian.  

But regarding Acura/HFS: absolutely, Honda pulled my credit seperate and apart from Volvo's and Credco's HPs.  

[Copperlady41]

Hi!

i would send a certified letter to the dealership requesting they contact Credco and have them to delete their unauthorized inquiry. Reminding the dealership that you had only given them permission to make an hard inquiry and unless they can prove otherwise you want them to have Credco issue a letter of deletion to Experian. Then I would turn around and call Experian telling them about the letter and unauthorized inquiry. 

[RobertEG]

If the pull was made either for evaluation of a consumer initiated request for credit or for a business transaction initiated by the consumer in which evaluatin of credit is a legitimate busness purpose, no consumer authorization is required.  They have permissible purpose under FCRA 604.

The entire purpose of sectin 604 is to avoid express consumer authorization for the purposes listed.

There is no "önly one inquiry" limit

In my opinion, they appear to have has permissible purpose.

[Anonymous]

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@RobertEG wrote:

If the pull was made either for evaluation of a consumer initiated request for credit or for a business transaction initiated by the consumer in which evaluatin of credit is a legitimate busness purpose, no consumer authorization is required.  They have permissible purpose under FCRA 604.

The entire purpose of sectin 604 is to avoid express consumer authorization for the purposes listed.

There is no "önly one inquiry" limit

In my opinion, they appear to have has permissible purpose.

---

Thanks for taking the time and for your candor.  

I thought the matter was a little grey because I had absolutely no direct contact with the Dealership that made the inquiry (via Credco).  Is that a necessary component to be considered "a consumer initiated request for credit or for a business transaction initiated by the consumer?"   

Furthermore, I only dealt with a third-party leasing company.  They were supposed to be obtaining financing via Volvo Financial Services (VFS did in fact pull my credit on the same day), having nothing to do with the Dealership.  So I'd contend that I certainly didn't initiate a request for credit or initiate a business transaction with this Dealership that pulled my credit, and nobody was authorized to do so on my behalf.  

Please let me know what you think.  

[DomLS3]

As far as I can remember, when you apply for financing with a any dealership, they always pull your credit from more than one financer. Once you give them the verbal or written authorization to pull credit, you're SOL.

I applied for financing through a Chevy dealership one time and found out I got HP'd 3 times from 3 different banks. I learned from here to always finance through my own bank or Credit Union because they only HP you once.

[SunriseEarth]

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@RobertEG wrote:

If the pull was made either for evaluation of a consumer initiated request for credit or for a business transaction initiated by the consumer in which evaluatin of credit is a legitimate busness purpose, no consumer authorization is required.  They have permissible purpose under FCRA 604.

The entire purpose of sectin 604 is to avoid express consumer authorization for the purposes listed.

There is no "önly one inquiry" limit

In my opinion, they appear to have has permissible purpose.

---

I would concur.  This seems like permissable purpose to me, as the OP was applying for credit.  

When I bought my car in August, I was instantly approved with Mazda's Chase Financing.   The dealer simultaneously did their own pull, so I received two HPs on TU.   However, it should also be noted that multiple inquiries for auto loans are scored as one inquiry, since lenders realize you're likely not looking to take out mutliple auto loans at one time.   I don't think contesting the inquiry will be successful.  Even it it was, it would likely be of little benefit in terms of FICO score.  

[AndySoCal]

Credco is a credit reporting agency they are NOT a lender. They pull credit report(s) on behalf of the lender that is requesting  it.

[Anonymous]

UPDATE:  

As I described above, calls to the the car dealership went unreturned.  So I went back to Credco and asked them to put through a Letter of Deletion since their 'client' won't return my phone calls.  They told me they would send a letter, but since it was unacompanied by the 'end users' (their client that pulled the credit) Letter of Deletion it will likely be rejected by the CRA.  

Since I didn't file the dispute, I don't have a dispute resolution confirmation from the CRA.  But when I checked my credit report a couple of days ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see the inquire had been deleted.