Hard credit pull without authorization...this time?
 

I'm very frustrated with my realtor and a mortgage company I looked into several months back.

Back story:

My wife and I have been looking at houses for the last year, casually. Last July, we wanted to make a move on a house so I contacted a mortgage company my realtor recommended just to see how much I qualified for, etc. I had a hard pull at that time, which is fine.
The house did not work in the end and we continued the search. Hadn't really seen anything until a few days ago and a house came on the market that was probably too big and too much but we wanted to take a look which was fine with our realtor. We were to meet yesterday at 1.
At about 11am yesterday, I get a call from the mortgage company that my realtor had called them asking to pull our file from last July to see what we qualified for. This was NOT the same person I talked with last time and the person on the phone said he was on vacation. She proceeds to start asking me questions about my credit report at which point I stopped her and asked who gave them permission to look at my file, to which she said my realtor called.
I was upset at this point because we are in the very, very, very preliminary steps of buying and in no way at the point of applying for a mortgage.

The walk though went fine but its not the house for us. I was going to let everything go until this morning when I get notification that I had a hard credit pull yesterday. Now I am pissed...looking at a file is one thing, a hard credit pull that will stay on report for 2 years and will negatively effect the score is another. I got on the phone to my realtor who said he NEVER told them to pull credit and only asked to get the results of the last inquiry. I told him I didn't appreciate him doing that without my permission, but the credit pull is a bigger problem.

I know any company must get authorization before pulling credit, but does anyone know what the rules are on pulling someone credit report without authorization? I know I gave them permission last July but I wouldn't think that gives them permission forever? Does it?

I'm not lawyering up or anything, but I would like an explanation from the company on why they thought it was ok to do this.

Gray area. If you actually filled out a loan application at one time including signing the disclosure they are going to pull your credit, technically there is no time limit on this if it's a preapproval (no address for purchase).

This isn't to say they will always have the right because pulling a tri-merge (the only one the bank wants to see) on the average costs $10-20 a pull, so if the loan officer starts pulling credit randomly, they can run up a bill tab pretty quickly they are typically on the hook for.

Of course, if you requested the file be closed or further work be halted they don't have the right to do that, also the application will most likely not be accurate since the dates from when you filled out the app and today the figures will likely be different overall, so even then they would have to re-sign a new application.

it's imperfect, but if you didn't tell the LO or give them specific notice to quit it, then there isn't much to say.

It's unethical, and you should tell the realtor to leave your file alone, they know full well they can't do anything with a "PREVIOUS" approval. Typically they expire every 90 days or so, since that's when the current credit report (by the bank's standards) would expire.

Give the realtor and LO notice in an email, and CC to yourself as proof you want them to stop pulling your credit.

rjp

You didn't give them authorization, but what are your damages. If in the next 2 years you get a loan and have to pay a higher rate because of the unauthorized pull then you could go after them.

When did I say I was going to sue them? That I had damages?

Just asking what the legality was of them running my credit without asking first.

What is a "hard" credit pull?

Pull your reports and dispute the record. If the mortgage company declines to remove it....ask for the signed authorization. If they don't respond or produce the authorization, the reporting agencies are required to remove the record.

hard credit pulls are from agencies that are inquiring for loan/mortgage purposes and affect your credit score. Soft pulls are informational like when you pull your own on annualcreditcheck.com or a promotional company, and they don't affect your score.

Hard credit pulls stay on your report for 2 years. They don't affect the score much, usually 2-5 points each, but I shouldn't lose points for something I didn't authorize.

Thanks for the info Joe Bob, that is the kind of info I was looking for...not all of us go immediately to a lawyer :)

I guess I misunderstood the question.