"Unauthorized" hard inquiry allowed to stay on report

[Anonymous]

A few months ago I got an alert of a hard inquiry on my Equifax report. I didn't recognize it at all and had not been applying for credit. I disputed with Equifax right away, but it was "verified" as legitimate the next day. So I called the company that made the inquiry, and long story short, the phone agent told me that she was able to determine that when they ran a credit check for one of their actual customers, there was a typo in the SSN used, resulting in my report being checked. She said I had to send them a letter with my information to get it solved.

I did so, but after 2 letters back and forth over 2 months, their response was generic saying they couldn't locate my report in their system. I just called them again and got the same thing. Not able to find anything in their system related to the inquiry. They can't even seem to find whatever info the first agent found back in November who told me what (supposedly) happened.

So I contacted Equifax to try and dispute again, this time over the phone. It was basically an instant denial. She said that despite myself not authorizing the inquiry, Equifax still considers it a legitimate check of my report from the company because it was acutally accessed, and so the inquiry has to stay on my report as a matter of record.

I was like what?!?!

I've never heard of that, and that seems very unfair. Is that true? I've tried Googling but can't find any similar situations. I'm now stuck and don't know what to do. I just filed a BBB complaint and am about to look into government entities to complain to.

Yes, it's just one inquiry but I'm rebuilding from a BK and am just getting over 700, so everything counts to me.

Thanks for any help!

[thornback]

Sorry this has happened.  I would suggest locking or freezing all 3 of your reports as it will prevent stuff like this from happening in the future. 

Aside from reaching out to the company (or filing a complaint via cfpb  in attempt to resolve the issue), there's not much else you can but claim fraudulent activity. This involves placing fraud alerts on your reports, filing an identity theft complaint with the FTC, and using the FTC Affidavit to file a police report -  then you would dispute again with the bureaus with your affidavit and police report as supporting documentation. 

[CreditCuriosity]

Equifax is worse with removing unauthorized inquiries.  PenFed did this to me on a mortgage that I never gave the loan office permission to pull my credit, yet he did.  Long story short PenFed went through emails and phone conversations and sided with me and wrote all 3 CRA's along with physical copies saying it was in error and yet Equifax has yet to remove it with even sending them proof.  The other two being TU/Experian  no issues removed.  I thought about going further with legal route, but honestly 1 pull for me is only worth so much of my time and blood pressure.  EQ still have yet to resolve and pay out the settlement of the massive breach that happened what 4 years ago so no one is getting their free credit monitoring or cash settlement..  Clearly many posts show they can give a dang about joe customer and you got to pull teeth with them.

[RobertEG]

The CRAs will often view credit inquiries as a "toothpaste out of the tube" issue.

They cannot change the fact that your credit information was provided by them to a third party, and they are required under certain provisions of the FCRA to maintain and provide record of inquiries for up to two years.

Thus, their first reaction is to maintain the inquiry as a "factual matter," and contest efforts to remove.

However, they are not likely to prevail in court in  denial of continued showing, to a consumer's detriment, an inquiry that has been proven to have lacked permissible purpose.  Regardless of the company line regurgitated by  a phone rep, an improper inquiry should not continue to be shown as proper, and they would likely lose upon any such argument in a court of law.

The posted scenario appears to clearly establish, based on facts obtained from the inquiree, that it was erroneously requested and improperly  filled by the CRA, and thus should not be shown in your consumer report.

I would immediately file a formal complaint with the CFPB, contesting the refusal of the CRA to abide by the strict mandate of FCRA 604 that an inquiry that lacks permissible purpose is not permitted, which includes posting an inaccurate record of something that was not proper in your credit report.

You also have the option of bringing civil action for wllful violation of the express prohibition of FCRA 604(c)(3), which expressly prevents a CRA from including a record of inquires not authorized by the consumer or having any permissible purpose from being provided in any credit reports they issue.

While completion of either of those steps may well not be completed either within the one year period wherein they still effect scoring, or even within the two year period within which the CRA normally cleans out record of old inquiries, I would argue that the CRAs may need a lesson in their cavalier attitude, and possible imposition of some cash damages for their willful continuance of showing of clearly improper information.

[Anonymous]

Great post by Robert above.  Go get 'em, OP.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advice. Not sure how far I will take it but will probably at least file with the CFPB.

I like the idea of taking it further to prove a point and "stick it to the man", but not really sure it's worth the effort. It feels kinda petty in some ways.

[Anonymous]

One way to look at it is that whatever you are able to accomplish may make it easier for the next member in your shoes.

[coldfusion]

If the organization that pulled your credit report is a FDIC or NCUA member you can expect that the CFPB will either a) refer your complaint to the correct agency and close out your CFPB complaint, or b) will notify you in writing to file a complaint to the appropriate agency and close out your CFPB complaint.   I've personally experienced both outcomes.   The complaint is filed against the creditor, not the CRA.

Your specific demand for an acceptable outcome is for the inquiry to be withdrawn.

You can go after the CRA as well but your first target should be the entity that pulled the report in the first place as your primary argument is that they did not have permissible purpose to make the inquiry in the first place.

[HRZ780]

Find the executive information for the company who made the inquiry (CEO, CFO, CTO, Vice President of Customer service, etc - all of them). Figure out their email addresses. Write a simple, polite and to the point "goodwill" letter explaining the situation and exactly what you would like from them.  Email this letter to each and every executive of that company.  If you don't hear back within 48hrs, send another salvo to all of them.  They will address the situation.....trickling it down the chain to the right person to get it done.  I've done this before in the past, helping my DW with various collections, CO's, inquiries, etc....and I've had 100% success rate in having every last item removed with this simple tactic.

[Anonymous]

While the above is a good course of action for the OP, it should be pointed out that he wouldn't be asking for a gesture of goodwill.  GW is when you admit you made a mistake, acknowledge that the reporting is indeed correct, but you're asking for it to be forgiven.  OP is dealing with the opposite, where a piece of report data shouldn't be there in the first place.