Wachovia credit inquiries on my report without application for credit

[Anonymous]

I have have a CD with Wachovia and now I see there have been three credit inquiries that I have applied for credit with Wachovia. This isn't true but the number of inquiries does affect my score. In fact, with a CD, I am giving them a line of credit . If anyone should be doing credit inquiries, it should be me running one on Wachovia. I've contacted them about this but they won't do anything and they said this is their standard practice for customers opening new accounts (apparently no matter what the account is). What should I do? I feel a bit powerless in this situation.

[Anonymous]

I just opened a wachovia checking and savings and they hard pulled me too, but only once on TU. I knew they were going to because I read the fine print online.

[marty56]

They also did a hard INQ on TU when I opened a checking account with no overdarft protection.  That is why I key $1 in the account and I wont add a penny more.

I understand that this is fairly common now.

[Anonymous]

If you never had an account with the bank and open a new account at that bank they will pull your CR.  I recently reopened a saving account with the same bank I've had my checking account for 8 yrs+ and they didn't pull a CR.  Some banks will tell you this, others will not.

[Junejer]

This is a fairly common, but unfair, practice IMHO, particularly if you are already a customer in good standing. This practice has picked up a lot of steam over the past decade and isn't going anywhere any time soon. Might as well get used to it.

[Anonymous]

For those interested in the nuts and bolts of why a bank opening a deposit account has PP despite the fact that you are not applying for credit, see the FTC Gowen letter here:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/gowen.shtm

It's a common misconception that you need to be applying for credit or insurance in order for someone to pull hard inquiry, but FCRA 604(a)(3)(F)(i) seems to grant quite a lot of leeway to those pulling reports for other purposes.

Specifically it says that permissible purpose exists when the entity pulling the report "has a legitimate business need for the information in connection with a business transaction initiated by the consumer."

That's a pretty broad definition.

Message Edited by cheddar on 03-28-2008 10:39 PM

[Junejer]

The worst part about it is when the banks "blame" it on the Patriot Act.

[Anonymous]

---

ByrdMan wrote:
The worst part about it is when the banks "blame" it on the Patriot Act.

---

Agreed.  But I think that's mostly because they just don't know what they're talking about so they make something up.

[Junejer]

Very convenient for them and most consumers just shake their heads okay.

[fused]

Brammy and I had beaten this topic to death some months ago. She says no bank has PP to hard you, my mind has changed some on this. I can see a bank pulling a hard inq on me if I open a checking account with OD protection...this is a line of credit. On the other hand, I have real problems with banks pulling a hard inq on me when I open up a simple savings account. In this situation, how on earth does the bank have PP? I'm lending them my money...why can't I hard the bank. lol

As for the PA, credit reports with all of their errors, is hardly a full-proof why to properly identify an individual. Passports or DLs is sufficient. Could you image an airport TSA employee pulling your credit to verify your identity.