Unauthorized Hard Pull Experian

[Anonymous]

So my fiancée and I recently were "investigated" because we both lost our jobs a few months ago and because of having no income we applied for food stamps.

In February we opened our own business as a wholesale supply company, we haven't made many sales yet we are still trying to build a customer base. We have been putting most of our expenses on our credit cards because we don't have an income at the moment. Luckily our tax refunds came in for last year and we have some money to pay our mortgage and bills for a few months. We are working hard to get the business running but right now it's going slow.

Well, for some reason as part of this "investigation" they did a Hard Pull on both of our credit reports. They did not inform us, they did not ask if it was okay to do this Hard Pull. The only reason we were informed was through our Experian Credit Monitoring.

So because we did not authorize this HP and were not informed of it we tried to go online and dispute it to get the points back. But it would not let us dispute it it says you can only have it removed due to identity theft if that is the case please call us to have a fraud alert placed on your credit report.

Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I can't believe it.  Did they think you had a secret job?  I would file a complaint with the state.  That is so wrong.  Good luck on new biz. 

[Anonymous]

They just couldn't fathom how we could pay our bills.

A) We super coupon anytime we buy things or go to eat we use coupons.

B) We do have multiple CC's that have sent us BT checks which we could use to pay the mortgage

C) Though the business hasn't taken off yet, we are starting to and once we get a steady customer base we won't need additional assistance, but it the meantime it is helpful. They offered us welfare (cash assistance) because neither of us have an income, but we declined it. We don't want money unless we can repay it, but food would be helpful which is why we only got the food stamps.

I just wish they would have asked us first I have the $1 CCT which has a full report I would have gladly given them it we aren't trying to hide anything. But doing a HP on both of us, losing the points for a HP while we were both in the Garden hurts.

[Anonymous]

So I contacted Experian regarding this who transferred me to a specialized department.

The CSR continuously repeated that FICO scoring is made up of many different components and that no one really knows how it works. ??? I asked him if he could confirm that this HP did not hurt my FICO score he said he couldn't guarantee that.

Then he went on to say that companies DO NOT need your authorization to do a HP on your credit report, and even though they can do this without your authorization it can hurt your credit score.

I don't understand this at all, can someone help me here what do I do?

[Anonymous]

This is, unfortunately, not illegal, but rather ignorance of the law.

Applying for a government benefit that involves financial status is one of the 'permissible purposes' in which they do not need your express authorization, it needs only to be part of an application initiated by the consumer.

[Anonymous]

I've read the application and it's disclosures too to bottom there's nothing that says I give them authorization to do a credit check..: