Credit Inquiry by Cingular Wireless

"Tee Box" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:IFJuc.1621$CW.821@lakeread05...
> Go to this link and pay very close attention to para 604.
> http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra.htm#604

Bingo!

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› See More: Credit Inquiry by Cingular Wireless

"Tee Box" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:XLJuc.1622$CW.1225@lakeread05...
> And the following from privacyrights.org
>
>
> Can the information in my credit file be used for any other purposes?
>
> Yes. The practice of generating and selling lists for use in
"pre-approved"
> credit and insurance offers is allowed by law. Trans Union, Experian and
> Equifax all engage in selling lists of consumers who meet certain criteria
> in order to receive a "firm" offer of credit or insurance. This is the
> source of the many pre-approved credit offers most consumers receive in
the
> mail. "Pre-approved" and so-called "firm" offers of credit, however, can
be
> somewhat misleading. A creditor may legally look at your report before
> making the offer. If you respond, the creditor may again access your
report
> before you are actually granted credit. They can deny your credit
> application at that time. This is explained in the fine print on the
> pre-approved offer.
[SNIP]

Bingo, bingo!

"Tee Box" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:djIuc.1612$CW.817@lakeread05...
> First, companies can only request a credit report when they have a valid
> reason to do so.
> Second, if you have an account with any company, they can and do run
> periodic checks on you.
> Third, the inquires that you see from credit card companies are not
specific
> to your SSN. They are generated in bulk based upon criteria set by the
> requestor. They didn't use your SSN to access it. That's what generates
> the mail you get for new cards.
> Fourth, you can request that credit bureaus not include you in those
> marketing searches and/or no requests without your specific permission.
> Fifth, as someone else said, get over it.

Correct on all points. It isn't an [entirely] random process. Your #4 (and
#5) is much to the point, it seems to me.

Sharon Needles <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

> My mother-inlaw did NOT give the Cingular representative my wife's
> SSN. No one from Cingular even contacted us to get an authorization
> approval.

Then how did your mother-in-law get the number ported? Unless I'm
gravely mistaken, only the "owner" of the number can port it. You
said your mother-in-law "deactivated" the AT&T phone THEN ported to
Cingular. I think you're misunderstanding the situation- you can't
port after you cancel service. The porting process cancels the
service for you. If you cancel first, your number is "lost" and can't
be ported anywhere.

My wild guess is that something like this happened- your Mother-in-law
goes to Cingular to port. Cingular says "but Mrs. Mother-in-law, this
isn't your account, it's your daughter's..." M-i-l gives copy of
daughter's bill to Cingular, Cingular gets vocal permission from your
wife to port (the permission to close the AT&T account that you
mentioned), ported your wife's AT&T account to Cingular (resulting in
the credit check you're complaining about) THEN, transferred the
contract from daughter's name to mother's, which is the only way I can
think of to accomplish this particular port.

So, frankly, instead of bashing Cingular for an "unauthorized" credit
inquiry, you should probably commend them for their creativity, since
they did the near-impossible- they ported your wife's number to her
mother!

Are you sure your wife didn't just misunderstand what she was giving
permission for?

> Cingular obtained my wife's SSN from ATTWS during the port from ATTWS
> to Cingular.

I don't think so. If I understand the porting proceedure, AT&T has no
direct contact with Cingular. After Cingular activates service, AT&T
is electronically notified by a third-party company (who handles the
porting requests) to cancel the prior service. Cingular gets no
information from AT&T, and AT&T gets none from Cingular (except the
electronic equivalent of "Sorry suckers, you lost another one. Cancel
this customer's service...") All information is supplied by the
consumer doing the port. The SSN, if obtained by Cingular, HAD to
come from your wife or her mother.

> They then took it upon themselves to pull the credit
> report of my wife.

If my theory is correct, they had to actually activate service in your
wife's name as well, even if only for a minute, prior to transferring
it into her mother's. They got permission to do THAT from someone-
perhaps from her mother (which would also be improper, but IMHO far
more "forgivable".)

As much as you're complaining about this credit inquiry, imagine how
much you'd be complaining if people could port _other_ people's
numbers! Maybe I like your number so much I'll just port it in my
name to Cingular... ;-) Seriously- por ing can't be done by anyone
but the number's "owner", which in this case is your wife.

> I am not barking up an empty tree.

Perhaps not, but I think you're missing a piece of this puzzle that
either your wife or her mother misunderstood or doesn't remember.

Regardless, (I almost wrote "irregardless" just to get a rise out of
John S.!), say Cingular "accidentally" ran the report. What are your
damages? If Cingular removes the inquiry, you are "safe" from any
credit harm.

> Have you read the Fair Credit Reporting Act? Consumers do have
> rights.

Yes, and companies sometimes make mistakes. No harm, no foul. If a
cell company had to run my credit to straighten out a problem with MY
mother's account I'd find that FAR less objectionable than any one of
the dozens of "routine" inquiries on my report for the "pre-approved"
credit card solicitations I receive daily in the mail.

Are you POSITIVE it was AT&T and not Cingular who spoke to your wife?
Again, if AT&T closed the account, there could be no port to Cingular
(or anyone else), and then the whole story doesn't make any sense.
Somebody's remembering the events incorrectly here, I'd wager...

Good luck.

>> I am not barking up an empty tree.
>
>Perhaps not, but I think you're missing a piece of this puzzle that
>either your wife or her mother misunderstood or doesn't remember.

If not empty, then the WRONG tree.

Why is this thread still going on? People have their credit checked all the
time and no one thinks less of their credit rating.

Get on with your life and take this someplace else.

--
John S.
e-mail responses to - john at kiana dot net

"John S." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| >> I am not barking up an empty tree.
| >
| >Perhaps not, but I think you're missing a piece of this puzzle that
| >either your wife or her mother misunderstood or doesn't remember.
|
| If not empty, then the WRONG tree.
|
| Why is this thread still going on? People have their credit checked all
the
| time and no one thinks less of their credit rating.
|
| Get on with your life and take this someplace else.
|

Actually, credit inquiries do reduce your score. As a matter of fact, when I
was younger and first trying to get my credit established, I was denied a
few times for "too many inquiries". Upon requesting a copy of my report, I
found out there were 50-60 inquiries on my credit in a relatively short
period of time. Will one check hurt your credit? Of course not. But when a
habit is made of it, it will in the short term.