A Secret the Credit Bureaus Don’t Want You To Know Why are companies charging money to reduce your credit card and direct mail offers when you can do it for Free?
How to limit the credit offers for Free!
Recently in 2007, the credit bureaus started selling what is called, Trigger Leads. When a company, such as a bank or mortgage company orders your credit report, they are considered a client to the Credit Agency. They pay a fee for the credit report and it will contain tradeline information, personal information and your FICO score. The client will pay the Credit Agency a fee to receive the report. Currently, the fee range is $10 to $35 per report.
The credit report is used to pre-approve or approve a request for credit. The main indicator on the report is usually the *FICO score. Three scores are provided within the report and the lender usually considers the middle/median score as the strongest indicator of the credit worthiness of the borrower (person requesting the credit).
You must give the creditor, bank or mortgage company your authorization to pull your credit report. So what is a Trigger Lead? A Trigger Lead is just that, a lead or sales lead. They are sold to credit card companies, mortgage companies and even banks. The credit bureau is selling your information to any company that wants to buy it. It is considered a pretty “Hot” lead because it is triggered by your request to get more credit.
Within 5 days of the date that you apply for new credit or a mortgage or a car, the credit bureau has sold your information within your report. This can even include your telephone number. You will start to receive a bunch of offers for new credit. Did you ever notice this in the past? You were just wondering how the rest of the world knows that you are applying for a mortgage, or trying to buy a car.
Well this is no mystery. What gets me steamed about it is that when a customer comes to me to apply for a mortgage, I have them sign a disclosure regarding the Privacy Act, which basically states that their information is safe with me. I don’t sell or share it with anyone. I am a trusted consultant that is helping a person to apply for credit. So it pains me to have to tell them that my credit agency is selling their information as soon as I request it.
You can break the cycle; you can protect yourself from your information being sold. Before you apply for any new credit, go to www.optoutprescreen.com. This website was put into place because consumers have the right to opt-out of marketing offers. This will protect you for 5 years. However, it will take at least 5 days to go into effect, so do it now. It takes about 5 minutes and takes 5 days to go into affect.
Good Luck Friend, Yours Truly,
Julie Hite
