Credit Report Pulls and Lender Calls
We’ve run into an annoying issue lately that we want to take some time to address. Borrowers are coming to us saying that the minute we, or another lender, have pulled their credit, they get other random lenders calling them or texting them–sometimes with aggressive sales tactics!
We want to make it clear that we are not doing something on our end to “allow” this to happen, and we are just as frustrated as all of our clients when it does. Unfortunately, whether it be us or another lender, it seems any mortgage credit pull can make a borrower subject to this type of scenario. So if you’re a borrower or a realtor with buyers who have had this issue, we’ve got a couple of suggestions that could help put an end to the endless calls and texts!
Why is This Happening?
Interestingly, credit bureaus are allowed to sell credit pull data. Experian, Equifax, and Transunion are the three credit reporting bureaus-they can sell these ‘trigger leads’ to other lenders. When a lender does a mortgage pull, it triggers this action, and then customers are subject to calls. It’s one of the ways that credit bureaus make money. They collect, organize and sell credit information about customers, and it is out of our hands when that does happen.
It Seems Worse Now…Is it?
While credit bureaus have always been able to sell credit pull data to lenders, it does seem that some lenders are a bit more “desperate” lately, and this has become a bigger issue than it was a couple of months ago. Buyers are typically great targets when their credit scores are under 700, but recently we’ve even heard about this problem from borrowers with credit scores way over 700— it doesn’t seem like anyone is immune anymore!
What Can We Do?
Can we simply not provide phone numbers to our credit vendors when we do a credit pull? We don’t actually give them that information at all, the bureaus have contracts to get that information from other sources – namely the wireless carriers themselves, so there isn’t much anyone can do about this practice.
However, there are things borrowers can do!
- To eliminate unwanted phone solicitations, go to www.donotcall.gov or call 888-382-1222. Include ALL phone numbers currently in use—home, cell, spouse/significant other numbers!
- To eliminate unwanted snail mail, go to www.optoutprescreen.com or call 888-567-8688. This should be especially helpful if they do it for the new address!
This does take some time to come into play, but it doesn’t hurt—and it’s a good way to “take the power” back. We want to give borrowers some way to fight the madness! 😊 If you know you or your buyer are getting their credit pulled in the coming weeks, it would be even better to do it beforehand—so it has time to go into effect!
On Our Side…
While our hands are tied about putting a stop to this incessant practice completely (which we would love to do), we are working it into our process to tell borrowers about this upfront, so there is no confusion about the best course of action to take—and they aren’t surprised if a few annoying calls and texts come through after we pull their credit. And hopefully, with these helpful links, borrowers can put an end to the calls for themselves. As always, come to us with any questions or if you’re unsure if you’re supposed to be doing anything about these calls!
Rest assured, when it comes to any part of our process, we always want to make sure borrowers feel empowered and comfortable working with us!