My lender ran my credit report and now the whole world knows..

Hi Martin - I'm going to share your post with everyone I know.  This information is so timely, with all identity theft going on out there now, and all these companies sending credit cards in the mail, "preapproved-just call to activate".......I'm sending this to my family, friends, and clients, and I'm going to take care of this for myself as well.

Thank YOU for sharing this with us!
Ann

Martin I too will be sharing this information with everyone I know I consider it extremely important.

Thank you for sharing.

Yes that is the result of the latest fad in the mortgage industry for getting leads.  They are called "Trigger Leads".  You get a leads that are people who had their credit pulled recently by a bank, lender, or mortgage company.  We tell our customers to prepare for it, if they are not on the Do Not Call list they will get a couple dozen calls with in a day or two of us pulling credit. 

Side Note: Besides being on the Do Not Call list you can sign up for a nother similar list that will help minimize Junk Mail.  You can sign up online with the credit bureaus so that no one is allowed to send you a "You've been approved for a new credit card..." in order to do those "pre-approved" offers they do a "soft pull" on your credit, it doesn't count as an inquery unless you actually fill out the form and return the application. 

Excellent suggestion!

I was very surprised when an old boss of mine showed me a ton of info he'd bought from one of the credit companies.  Names, phone #'s.  These people were PISSED OFF when they got called and I can't blame them one bit.

I agree most of the problems are out of our control and stem from sloppy corporate care.  As far as junk mail from credit card companies I keep it coming, rip it up and toss it.  Figure its my little way off helping keep the postal rates down, let the big guys spend money mailing junk.

Thanks Martin, I'm going to pass this on to my clients and make sure my family members know about it as well.

Thanks Marrtin,  I was shocked when a recent post stated that one of their clients had gone to a mortgage lender and applied for a mortgage loan.  The buyer later found out that their credit report had gone out to 5 other mortgage lenders!  How in the world could this happen?  How would a mortgage lender sell a clients private credit information to competitors?  It just seems like nothing is private anymore and certainly not when it comes to peoples credit.  Thanks for sharing and I hope everyone tells as many people as they can.  Have a great day.

Thanks so much for sharing this helpful information!  We'll definitely tell people this.

Thanks for sharing this, Martin. Timely information.

Jeff

great post.

 the bureaus are sellling info to my competitors.... when i pull a credit report, they get a lead and now i have a bunch of yay-hoos calling my clients. they are always vague..... trying to get the client to switch without knowing it.

Thank you for the info. I knew there had to be a way to keep the Bureaus from marketing our people. I would rather have some legislature to prevent them from doing so, but at least we can let them opt out.

Thanks to all who have replied...

Brian, yes you're right this will stop credit info from being sold to 3rd parties, but it will not stop soft inquiries that can be used for junk mail.  You could always contact the bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit report and that will alert you anytime someone tries to access your credit report.

One of the biggest offenders of running credit and selling credit info is actually the cell phone companies.  For example you buy a new verizon phone, they run your credit report for that 2 year phone contract, and they never tell you that your credit is being run.  Of course if you read the fine print, the contract reads that you are authorizing them to run your credit report whenever they want.  baddabing baddaboom we got your credit now and we're going to sell it for a profit.

No thanks, Verizon.. I think I'll pass.

Can You HEAR ME NOW...

MR

Martin!

Thank you for this... I logged on, opted out and was done inside of 2 minutes... Pretty easy! I'll be adding a link to this site in my newsletters, starting right now!

Thanks,

Pat 

Michael Delp , you are too modest.  You should have included a link to your recent post, My turn to Rant about this very topic.  It really does go hand in hand with this post.

Martin, you are the man! This was perhaps your best work yet. This info needs to get to everyone.

Hi Martin :)

I was reading your poem about seeking our comments. I already know about the opt out, but I did want to leave you with a gift...

This was made by a The Codgers. It goes very well with your poem and would look great in your posts. SVW (smiling very wide)

TLW...ROAR!

Martin,

Excellent post ! ! I would like to include this is my seller buyer file with your permission and credit to you as author. May I? I will also be bookmarking this for my own reference. Thank you : )

another important point is...

your WORK LAPTOP is for YOU and YOU ALONE

don't lend it out

don't even let your friends, wife, etc check their emails on it...

it has too much extremely valuable data on it.

In fact, a good idea is to simply pull files that aren't active off the hard drive and move them to an external back up... then if your computer is stolen or lost, only a fraction of your data is available for thieves

Martin,

Thanks for the post. I did not know about the opt out process for credit bureaus. This is great information!

This is good info. I "opted out" 6 months ago and it dramatically cut unsolicited credit offers.

Thanks for the post.  I forgot to opt out.  I guess that I'll do it next week.

Well this is new to me.  I really didn't know that the credit company is permitted to sell my information without me knowing it.  That's an interesting fact.

Ken

Hey TLW,

thanks for the gift.. It took me a few minutes to figure out what you meant... (i'm obviously not too bright). 

I got a gift and a roar...  You are too cool..

Thanks will be in touch.

Martin

Dan If you really want to do your part to keep postal rates down, open the junk mail.  Take out the self addressed pre-paid envelope, then shred the junk, stuff it in the pre-paid envelope and send it back.

Martin The sign up I was talking about is not the do not call, I'll have to dig up the link and info I got to see the specifics, I thought it was for prohibiting soft pulls, but it might be just preventing credit bureaus from selling to third parties, which would take care of the Trigger lead situation.

The triggered leads that the bureaus sell are pure BS. Not the leads, the fact that they sell them.

Martin, this is good stuff, my friend. And it's nice to see TLW has noticed you. We need to get her to CA for a BBQ.

Thanks for such a great post! Now a days its so easy to get someone's personal information. I shred everything now! And the Do Not Call List does help with all the b.s. calls. Thanks!

Your post has been included in the week in review.

Martin, your blogs are often, but they don't come often enough. Write more.

Apparently, this issue was taken up by the FTC recently.  Read about their statement here.