I have a client who’s had a problem with “soft pulls” by Capital One showing up regularly on some of his credit reports.  That’s great, you say, but “what’s a soft pull?”  A soft pull is a credit report inquiry by a third party that doesn’t show up when other people pull your credit report, and it isn’t reflected in your credit score.  What’s the big deal then? you might ask.  Well, regardless of whether it shows up when potential creditors evaluate you for credit, each time there is a soft pull, it means somebody saw some of your credit data. 

There are two primary types of “soft pulls” . The first is an account review inquiry. This is done by a credtior with whom you already have an account, just keeping tabs on your general financial health.  It’s pretty much allowed period as long as you actually have an account with the company. If you don’t have an account with the company, they shouldn’t be doing account reviews.  The other type is trickier. It is the “PRM” or “promotional inquiry”.  A promotional inquiry shows on your credit report when the credit bureau sells a targeted list to a prospective creditor based on defined characteristics chosen by the company that wants to sell you credit. The prospective creditor does not get your full information; rather, the creditor simply gets a ping that you are in the group they are looking for.  The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows these inquiries, but only when, in exchange for the information, the prospective creditor agrees to make you a “firm offer of credit.”  The catch with Capital One seems to be how often they are doing it, and whether they are really making firm offers in connection with all of the inquiries.  One thing I found out in my web research, that people have been complaining about the quantity of Capital one promotional inquiries for at least a decade.  Here’s a link to an articles at consumeraffairs.org talking about Capital One’s promotional inquiries back in 2006. 

If you find out that Capital One has been making a number of promotional inquiries on your credit report that do not correspond with firm offers of credit that you received, please call my office at 317-662-4529. I’d love to hear from you. You can also send me an email inquiry through my website at www.hoferlawindy.com.