When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

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EdNorton
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Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2019 10:11 am

When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

Post by EdNorton »

It would be nice just to unfreeze 1 instead of all of them. Thanks.
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Jags4186
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Re: When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

Post by Jags4186 »

Nope. You can look online and see who generally pulls what, but that can vary even by your location. Some are easy to figure out — Capital One pulls all 3.
Yarlonkol12
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Re: When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

Post by Yarlonkol12 »

When we applied for a target card a few years ago I forgot I had a freeze on, didn’t think about it. I got a “denied” letter later but it gave me a number to call to try again, so I called and while the guy was on the phone I just “unlocked” equifax, he pulled that and it was good enough, then I locked it again
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Topic Author
EdNorton
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Re: When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

Post by EdNorton »

Yarlonkol12 wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 7:04 am When we applied for a target card a few years ago I forgot I had a freeze on, didn’t think about it. I got a “denied” letter later but it gave me a number to call to try again, so I called and while the guy was on the phone I just “unlocked” equifax, he pulled that and it was good enough, then I locked it again
Thanks, that sounds easier, will try with Costco.
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UpperNwGuy
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Re: When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

Post by UpperNwGuy »

If you go to the myFICO discussion forum or the Doctor of Credit website, you can find this information. It isn't completely reliable, but it gives you a general idea.
scrabbler1
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Re: When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

Post by scrabbler1 »

Back in 2015, I had two experiences dealing with credit cards and rating agencies. The short answer to the OP's question in both instances is "yes."

The first was at a major department store. They were offering a discount on my purchase if I opened a store charge card on the spot (at the register). I said okay but my instant application was denied for an unknown (at the time) reason. (It took me 15 minutes to buy one item, and without any discount, annoying me considerably.) I later got a letter from the store's credit department explaining why, and which credit agency they used. It turned out my credit freeze from a year ago caused the rejection. Too bad the cashier didn't know this could be a problem. Too bad I didn't know, either.

A few weeks later, I applied for an increase in my main credit card's credit limit. I happened to be at my local bank branch and the rep helped me out. However, he knew in advance that if I had a credit freeze, I'd have to unfreeze it first so their credit department could review it. They told me which agency they used so when I got back home I could find the letter from that agency which had the PIN code I would need to make the temporary "thaw" so they could review the report. I got home and did that and called the bank's credit department and they conferenced me in with the credit agency. I gave them the PIN code, the bank rep saw the report and approved the increase. Like night and day.
chemocean
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Re: When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

Post by chemocean »

I called the phone number associated with the credit card application and ask. Sometimes they tell you the specific rating agency they use and other times they say they randomly pull from all three, in which case you need to unfreeze all three if you want to immediately qualify. I unfreeze whatever agency(s) are required for the day I apply for the card and the for the next day.
Otherwise, you can wait until you get the required USPS denial letter which indicates which reporting agency needs to be unfrozen.
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ResearchMed
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Re: When applying for credit card, will they tell you what credit rating agency they will use?

Post by ResearchMed »

I very recently applied for a new card that had a huge number of awards points.

During the brief online process, there was an expected message that they'd need to get back to me.
About a week later, I got a snail mail letter (I was expecting email) telling me that they had tried to process my application, and needed to have me unfreeze my Experian account. It was not a "denial letter", just a request to let them get necessary information. (The letter provided the number to phone them and to phone Experian and both phone numbers checked out.) I called Experian, unfroze my account, called the card vendor, told them, they asked me to hold for what might be 4 misnutes (4 specifically!?), and came back to tell me I was approved.
I then called Experian and froze my account again.

Also, there have been some discussions here on BH about new charge cards being approved but with really low credit limits. So I was quite startled when the rep continued on after telling me I was approved to give my credit limit. It was much higher than I would have expected and also higher than I can imagine needing, given all of the other charge cards I/we have. Those already have high limits/usage patterns.
I haven't applied for any new card in quite a few years, so maybe that affected the new credit limit?

My high credit score dropped by 17 points. I was expecting something less, but no matter. High is still high. And I assume that in a couple of months it will be back. Or not. It might fluctuate like this somewhat regularly(?). I was mostly surprised with how fast that score dropped. It may have been almost instantaneous, but I didn't look again "right away" or even an hour or so later.

RM
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