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Unauthorized pulling of my credit report

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Anonymous
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Unauthorized pulling of my credit report

My wife has a Capital One credit card debt that was placed in collections about 3 months ago. She is handling the matter, but in the meantime, Capital One pulled my credit report without my knowledge or consent, and I now have a new 'hard inquiry' listing. I have am neither a joint account holder, nor am I an 'authorized user' of her account. Although I understand that I am liable for the debt since it was incurred during our marriage, is Capital One's action a violation of the FCRA?
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RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Unauthorized pulling of my credit report

First, the FCRA never uses the terms “hard” or “soft” pull.  These are credit coding terminologies.  The FCRA regulates the amount of information that a requestor may receive under a permissible pull of your credit report (FCRA 604(c)(2)).  The only CRA reporting restriction in the FCRA is FCRA 604(c((3), which applies only to credit transactions "not initiated by the consumer."

What are generally referred to and coded only as “soft” pulls are credit transactions “not initiated by the cosumer.”  FCRA 604(c)(1).  However, FCRA 603(m) states that “The term “credit or insurance transaction that is not initiated by the consumer” does not include the use of a consumer credit report by a person with which the consumer has an account or insurance policy, for the purpose of (1) rewiewing the account or insurance policy; or (2) collection the account.”

Interpreting the double negatives of these two provisions of the FCRA, a creditor with which you have an account may pull your credit report without consumer authorization.

While they can, and most do, report an account review to the CRA with a code that excludes it from FICO scoring (soft pull), this is not an FCRA issue.

IMHO, the pull is fully authorized under the FCRA, and the CRA is permited to include any such reporting in your credit report.

Message Edited by RobertEG on 12-06-2009 09:27 PM
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