It's possible someone else may tell me I'm wrong, but I believe there's something call Prior Permission. Any place you have credit with has prior permission to hard pull your credit reports whenever they want. While most won't on a whim, if they're gonig to be opening a new card for you with a new credit provider they probably would hard pull to ensure that you meet the new credit provider's requirements.
When I called my student loan company in 2007 about my deferrment ending with virtually no notice and if there were any other options they hard pulled me, an in my opinion did so for no reason. They told me my income level disqualified me for any options with my SL payments, so why they needed to pully my credit, without even telling me, is beyond me. But they had prior permission simply because I have credit with them.
