News Flash

11/12/09

Protect Your Credit Information From Being Sold

While we have seen articles regarding credit bureaus selling information, we have never directly seen this in action.  Recently we experienced a situation where we saw it happen, researched it, and were astounded as what is allowed with regard to this practice.  

An individual recently applied for a loan with us.  They called to say that another mortgage company, let's call them XYZ Mortgage, had contacted them regarding refinancing.  Due to rates being down, we thought this might be a coincidence; however, it seemed a little odd.  We asked the borrower to call XYZ mortgage and ask them if they had received their information from a third party or was it just that XYZ was making random calls.  

The borrower called XYZ.  XYZ said that they pay the credit reporting agencies - Equifax, Trans Union, Experian, to provide them with a lead if they see that a mortgage company is pulling credit on someone.  When the reporting agencies see this, they give the information to XYZ.  They do not give XYZ  your social security numbers or the credit report; however, they do give a name and address - I am not sure about a phone number - AND THIS IS LEGAL!  

We then contacted our credit provider that merges three reports from Equifax, Trans Union and Experian and they confirmed that this is going on and has been going on for a while.  We had heard of this, but never really seen it happen.  We looked into this further and under the Federal Trade Commission's website, there are some options available to Opt Out.  1888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) or visit www.optoutprescreen.com.  

The Federal Trade Commission website also provides a much more in depth discussion on this topic.  http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre17.shtm

We are not sure if all of the protection features work.  We hope that you find this information helpful - we found it frightening.

Ann & Mo