Aarrrgg!! Creditors!!!

[Fishlips]

Ok...so we're trying to buy a house so just for peace of mind I ran my credit report. No big right? I know I have no late payments and I've never been sent to collections. I figured I would be pretty safe. Well I found a surprise. Capital One has ran my credit every 2 weeks for the last two years! You're only allowed 3 checks in a quarter before they start affecting your credit and they have been tripling the allowance! I have never applied for any kind of account from them before ever!

I'm not sure how much this has affected my credit but I was shocked! And here's the best part...you call them and there is nothing they can do except take you off their mailing list. They have no way to assure that your credit won't be run again, or any way to fix the damage they have done!

I'm SOOO mad. Fiance was across the room and when I got off the phone he was looking at me like I just finished beating his dog with a stick...

Does anyone have any ideas about fixing it? Are the inquires just on my record forever? Can I do anything to get them to stop? I'm going to put a notation on my credit that I didn't request those inquires, and possibly an alert that they are not to run my credit again.

[EarlyBird]

They CAN do something abut it, you just MUST MUST MUST be persistant.. tell them you want a letter stating you NEVER allowed them to run your credit and it was THEIR fault... also, write you own letter like that..
go ahead and send it off to all three credit agencies, ask them for a "rescore' you WILL see it come up..

[WebLady]

I know that too many credit inquiries can look bad on your credit, but I didn't know the credit card companies can check your credit if you are not applying for anything.

I don't know what you can do except call and speak to some higher up, maybe even contact the BBB on them?

Good luck!

I know my credit has to be bad after having a bankruptcy a few years back, but I haven't checked it in a long time, maybe I should.

[MrsDM]

I see this happen a lot in the law firm I work in. You do have to keep calling them, writing to them, etc. We see a lot of people who come in and never get anywhere with them and hire us to try and fix it. You may want to even consult with an attorney prior to doing anything, just in case there is something they can suggest to help you when you talk to them or know of certain laws.

Good luck!

[Kfancii]

If I understand correctly, there are two types of inquiries that are run on a credit report. Those that are solicited by you when you apply for credit and those that are not. From what I have been told, only the inquiries that you solicit affect your credit rating. The unsolicited credit inquiries are not supposed to affect your score in any way. Here is some info I found:

Inquiries to Obtain Credit

When you apply for any type of credit — mortgage loans (http://www.free-credit-reports.com/finances.php) or credit cards — your score will be affected, although typically this type of hard inquiry may only drop your score by a few points. If your credit history is limited or you don’t have many open accounts, your score could be affected more significantly when a lender or creditor pulls your credit report.
If you apply for credit through several different creditors to get the best rate, keep in mind each lender is pulling a new credit report. As long as you do your shopping within a relatively short period of time — 14 days according to myFICO — your score will stay higher than if your shopping is spread out over a longer time period. Multiple applications for credit over an extended period of time give the impression that you might be desperate for credit and are applying for loans everywhere. This is an immediate red flag to lenders.
Solicitations

Many companies access a version of your credit report in order to “pre-approve” you for a loan product or credit card. This unsolicited offer of credit does not affect your credit in any way, but it may show up on a section of your credit report that lists all inquiries. Even if you see numerous soft inquiries on your report, you can rest easy knowing they won’t hurt your credit.

[SerendipityCrafts]

Is it possible that you applied for some type of store card - ie a furniture or appliance store for a buy now, pay later thing? If so, the card may be underwritten by Capital One and as such, you would have given permission for them to check your credit.

I don't know if this is true or not but I was told by a friend that his credit card company has reduced his balance seemingly for no reason at all (he pays in full and on time each month). As they explained it to him - with this financial crisis - some CC companies are reviewing their cardholders and reducing limits because they don't want to extend as much credit any longer. Makes you wonder if this "review" process involves checking your credit score again and again?

[Fishlips]

Is it possible that you applied for some type of store card - ie a furniture or appliance store for a buy now, pay later thing? If so, the card may be underwritten by Capital One and as such, you would have given permission for them to check your credit.

I don't know if this is true or not but I was told by a friend that his credit card company has reduced his balance seemingly for no reason at all (he pays in full and on time each month). As they explained it to him - with this financial crisis - some CC companies are reviewing their cardholders and reducing limits because they don't want to extend as much credit any longer. Makes you wonder if this "review" process involves checking your credit score again and again?

You know I've heard creditors lowering credit limits too. I personally haven't had that happen It's related to the recession (less money in the economy, less money to have floating out there). But in my case I haven't applied for anything. The last card I applied for was an Amex, but that was 11 months ago and I was approved. So there would be no reason for them to keep running a credit report.

I was thinking about it and it maybe that some one with a close SSN or name are applying and they are writing the application wrong, or it's getting keyed wrong, or someone is trying to fraud me.

Either way there is something that I have to get to the bottom of.

[NurseLau84]

I wonder why they would be checking your credit so much?? Weird. I monitor my credit scores at all times with http://www.myfico.com (http://www.myfico.com/)....it costs me like $8 per month and sends me alerts when anyone checks my credit, if something posts/changes in my files, and if my score goes up or down. I would keep calling CapOne and make sure they stop doing that, and then monitor your credit to keep tabs on it.
I started doing this last year before we bought our house to make sure that my credit stayed in the 700's.

[SerendipityCrafts]

I was thinking about it and it maybe that some one with a close SSN or name are applying and they are writing the application wrong, or it's getting keyed wrong, or someone is trying to fraud me.

Either way there is something that I have to get to the bottom of.

Ohhhhh I didn't think about identity theft. Good thinking.

[Fishlips]

For any one wondering what it was...as it turns out it was a bunch of "pre-approvals" that Capital One had been running. They were NOT detrimental to my credit, but that just means that there were all those potential applications that my identity could have been stolen.

Lesson:Call companies where you are getting lots of "pre-approved" solicitations for credit cards and get off their mailing lists!