This is a thread to brainstorm for ideas and discuss methods to profit from freezing a credit report.
I have frozen my experian report (which has 30 inqs between 6 months and 2 years old) to avoid additional hard pulls. TU and EQ have 0 hard pulls (and future pulls may be bumped off). Unfortunately, based upon where I live and most of the credit I apply for, 90% of applications result in a hard pull on EX. It is killing my credit score.
my current ideas: 1: A credit line increase is worth a hard pull on EQ or TU for me but not EX. By freezing EX, I can be sure not to incur a hard pull on that CRA when requesting a CRA. Downside: potential adverse action from the creditor?
2: A business credit AOR. Doing a business credit AOR will only result in inqs on TU and EQ. Since the credit lines don't show on my reports and the inqs can be bumped, I will be able and ready to do a personal AOR relatively soon after the business AOR with a good credit profile. Downside: minimal but maybe applying for a creditor with whom I have an existing relationship might get spooked and there might be some adverse action?
3: Bank account and brokerage account bonuses that require a hard pull are suddenly more tempting. I assume most banks/brokerage firms will try pulling another CRAs report if one is frozen. Downside: none?
I will continue to update this thread as I get new ideas and as I go through the process (I sent a certified letter yesterday to freeze my credit).
lhendricks92 said: See Eugene's thread for an example of an A0R with EX frozen. He generally had success getting EX pullers to pull elsewhere.Thanks. The B of A adverse action scares me a little... from reading that thread, I couldn't tell if it was directly related to the frozen EX report. Probably not, I think... Here is another one that is business credit focused: Rolling Business aor with EXP (brrrrrrrr)
Tops
Member
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 10:45a
When my wallet was lost recently I put a temporary freeze by calling Transunion, who in turned asked Experian and Equifax to also freeze my reports. How do you get Experian to not have the other CRA's reports frozen?
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 11:02a
Tops said: When my wallet was lost recently I put a temporary freeze by calling Transunion, who in turned asked Experian and Equifax to also freeze my reports. How do you get Experian to not have the other CRA's reports frozen?
That sounds like a fraud alert and not a freeze, I don't think a CRA can FREEZE your others.
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 11:17a
theman2 said: lhendricks92 said: See Eugene's thread for an example of an A0R with EX frozen. He generally had success getting EX pullers to pull elsewhere.Thanks. The B of A adverse action scares me a little... from reading that thread, I couldn't tell if it was directly related to the frozen EX report. Probably not, I think... Here is another one that is business credit focused: Rolling Business aor with EXP (brrrrrrrr)
Only discover asked me to unfreeze EXP (in a letter) that was sent to my office. My property manager lost the letter, so I didn't even call them. But I'm sure I will get them to pull another next time I apply.
I think the lenders who pull a soft on experian (AMEX, BofA and other) will cut you off at the knees if they pull a soft on your experian for a CLI, so be careful.
Thats why I promote freezing EXP. way before you have 30+ inquires. I have 20 EXP INQs and it doesn't seem to have caused any harm but luckily I froze it before more damage was done.
Here is my plan:
Keep my EXP inqs low so I can ask for CLIs without worrying about A/A. As long as my EXP is frozen I can ask for CLI every 30 days if I want too! So even when I have 5 inqs I will not unfreeze it and let new inqs get put on it.
Very few check my TU and very few do account reviews on my EQ (I think only CITI does), 90% of account reviews are on my experian. So I must keep EXPERIAN clean for CLIs.
win333 said: Tops said: When my wallet was lost recently I put a temporary freeze by calling Transunion, who in turned asked Experian and Equifax to also freeze my reports. How do you get Experian to not have the other CRA's reports frozen? That sounds like a fraud alert and not a freeze, I don't think a CRA can FREEZE your others.I agree with this. You can freeze your credit report without putting in a fraud alert. The info for experian is here. Note: for CA, there is a $10 fee and the request must be sent certified with some required info to prove your identity.
leonardo1
Senior Member
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 1:24p
win333 said: theman2 said: lhendricks92 said: See Eugene's thread for an example of an A0R with EX frozen. He generally had success getting EX pullers to pull elsewhere.Thanks. The B of A adverse action scares me a little... from reading that thread, I couldn't tell if it was directly related to the frozen EX report. Probably not, I think... Here is another one that is business credit focused: Rolling Business aor with EXP (brrrrrrrr)
Only discover asked me to unfreeze EXP (in a letter) that was sent to my office. My property manager lost the letter, so I didn't even call them. But I'm sure I will get them to pull another next time I apply.
I think the lenders who pull a soft on experian (AMEX, BofA and other) will cut you off at the knees if they pull a soft on your experian for a CLI, so be careful.
Thats why I promote freezing EXP. way before you have 30+ inquires. I have 20 EXP INQs and it doesn't seem to have caused any harm but luckily I froze it before more damage was done.
Here is my plan:
Keep my EXP inqs low so I can ask for CLIs without worrying about A/A. As long as my EXP is frozen I can ask for CLI every 30 days if I want too! So even when I have 5 inqs I will not unfreeze it and let new inqs get put on it.
Very few check my TU and very few do account reviews on my EQ (I think only CITI does), 90% of account reviews are on my experian. So I must keep EXPERIAN clean for CLIs.
can you elaborate on what you mean in the sentence in bold? are you saying that if you have lots of EXP inquiries and AMEX, BoA, etc. soft pull you for a CLI they may decrease your lines? or are you saying something completely different?
nymgiants
Addicted Member
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 1:33p
When you freeze your experian report, can you still pull the 3 bureau report through credit monitoring such as (AMEX credit secure), or is that blocked as well
leonardo1
Senior Member
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 1:35p
theman2 said: This is a thread to brainstorm for ideas and discuss methods to profit from freezing a credit report.
I have frozen my experian report (which has 30 inqs between 6 months and 2 years old) to avoid additional hard pulls. TU and EQ have 0 hard pulls (and future pulls may be bumped off). Unfortunately, based upon where I live and most of the credit I apply for, 90% of applications result in a hard pull on EX. It is killing my credit score.
my current ideas: 1: A credit line increase is worth a hard pull on EQ or TU for me but not EX. By freezing EX, I can be sure not to incur a hard pull on that CRA when requesting a CRA. Downside: potential adverse action from the creditor?
2: A business credit AOR. Doing a business credit AOR will only result in inqs on TU and EQ. Since the credit lines don't show on my reports and the inqs can be bumped, I will be able and ready to do a personal AOR relatively soon after the business AOR with a good credit profile. Downside: minimal but maybe applying for a creditor with whom I have an existing relationship might get spooked and there might be some adverse action?
3: Bank account and brokerage account bonuses that require a hard pull are suddenly more tempting. I assume most banks/brokerage firms will try pulling another CRAs report if one is frozen. Downside: none?
I will continue to update this thread as I get new ideas and as I go through the process (I sent a certified letter yesterday to freeze my credit).
great thread. i have a large AOR coming up and am trying to decide if an EXPBRR is in order. i will have 3 EXP inqs left when i pull the trigger. i'm figuring on about 30 apps. so if 1/3 pull EXP, i would wind up with 13 EXP inqs post AOR. on the other hand i could EXPBRR and hope that those companies that normally pull EXP pull something else, AND that in doing so it does not kill my AOR results for those companies. i'm thinking that due to the small number of EXP inqs i have currently, i should probably not freeze this time around.
nymgiants said: When you freeze your experian report, can you still pull the 3 bureau report through credit monitoring such as (AMEX credit secure), or is that blocked as wellI believe the other two reports will refresh but your frozen report will not. this seriously red thread leaves me to believe that. As soon as my EX report is frozen, I will be able to verify this with AMEX Credit Secure. I'm doing daily pulls.
One concern I have with this is that it may be difficult for me to see my frozen report but current creditors will be looking at it. If something bad is mistakenly reported, it may take longer for me to be aware of this. Also, I'm not sure if they are notified that the report is frozen when they do a soft pull...
nymgiants said: When you freeze your experian report, can you still pull the 3 bureau report through credit monitoring such as (AMEX credit secure), or is that blocked as well
A freeze does not STOP a consumer from performing a soft pull (sounds dirty).
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 1:44p
theman2 said: nymgiants said: When you freeze your experian report, can you still pull the 3 bureau report through credit monitoring such as (AMEX credit secure), or is that blocked as wellI believe the other two reports will refresh but your frozen report will not. this seriously red thread leaves me to believe that. As soon as my EX report is frozen, I will be able to verify this with AMEX Credit Secure. I'm doing daily pulls.
One concern I have with this is that it may be difficult for me to see my frozen report but current creditors will be looking at it. If something bad is mistakenly reported, it may take longer for me to be aware of this. Also, I'm not sure if they are notified that the report is frozen when they do a soft pull...
TC and AMEX still pulls my frozen experian, but pm123 and chaseidentityprotect do not get my frozen experian report.
So no problem there.
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 1:46p
clyde_frog said: win333 said: theman2 said: lhendricks92 said: See Eugene's thread for an example of an A0R with EX frozen. He generally had success getting EX pullers to pull elsewhere.Thanks. The B of A adverse action scares me a little... from reading that thread, I couldn't tell if it was directly related to the frozen EX report. Probably not, I think... Here is another one that is business credit focused: Rolling Business aor with EXP (brrrrrrrr)
Only discover asked me to unfreeze EXP (in a letter) that was sent to my office. My property manager lost the letter, so I didn't even call them. But I'm sure I will get them to pull another next time I apply.
I think the lenders who pull a soft on experian (AMEX, BofA and other) will cut you off at the knees if they pull a soft on your experian for a CLI, so be careful.
Thats why I promote freezing EXP. way before you have 30+ inquires. I have 20 EXP INQs and it doesn't seem to have caused any harm but luckily I froze it before more damage was done.
Here is my plan:
Keep my EXP inqs low so I can ask for CLIs without worrying about A/A. As long as my EXP is frozen I can ask for CLI every 30 days if I want too! So even when I have 5 inqs I will not unfreeze it and let new inqs get put on it.
Very few check my TU and very few do account reviews on my EQ (I think only CITI does), 90% of account reviews are on my experian. So I must keep EXPERIAN clean for CLIs.
can you elaborate on what you mean in the sentence in bold? are you saying that if you have lots of EXP inquiries and AMEX, BoA, etc. soft pull you for a CLI they may decrease your lines? or are you saying something completely different?
That was supposed to say, If a creditor pulls a soft on experian and you have 30 inqs. They'll cut you off at the knees possibly. I'm not willing to take that chance.
win333 said: That was supposed to say, If a creditor pulls a soft on experian and you have 30 inqs. They'll cut you off at the knees possibly. I'm not willing to take that chance.Well, I'm already there at 30 inqs and my EX score is still pretty high (no recent inqs). I'm not particularly worried about this as long as a bunch of debt does not show up on my personal report.
I'd be just as concerned about the consequences of requesting a CLI on each card every month. Most creditors probably keep tabs on this history in their records.
Fresh idea to me. I currently have 3 TU, 14 EX, and 9 EQ.
My question is, during a FREEZE, can or will B* still occur?
I'm using Nat'l City. It seems that all of a sudden TU B* stopped.
Rorer714
Senior Member
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 2:32p
Put a freeze on EX for the wife and me in December. Since the 1st of the year BOA did two hard pulls on her, both TU. Not sure if it was because of the freeze or if they changed who they pulled from. They always pulled from EX for both of us.
01LX said: My question is, during a FREEZE, can or will B* still occur?You can't B* EX so freezing EX doesn't affect bumpage. I'd hazard to guess that bumpage would still work on TU and EQ with a frozen report because you can still do the soft inqs. There is less of a reason to freeze those two because bumpage quickly mitigates the damage done by the inqs...
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 3:46p
theman2 said: 01LX said: My question is, during a FREEZE, can or will B* still occur?You can't B* EX so freezing EX doesn't affect bumpage. I'd hazard to guess that bumpage would still work on TU and EQ with a frozen report because you can still do the soft inqs. There is less of a reason to freeze those two because bumpage quickly mitigates the damage done by the inqs...
The only reason I can see to freeze TU or EQ is when you want to open checking accounts or CLIs. I think a hard pull for a checking is unacceptable and many times you don't know if a CLI will result in a hard pull.
Many times they say no hard pull and then pull a hard on you. You can freeze and unfreeze TU and EQ right from their websites and it says it only takes 15 minutes to unfreeze it.
So if you already B*ed it would be a shame to get a hard pull for the little things.
I applied for a BIZ chevron card, with no personal guarantee and they pulled EQ, man that pissed me off. If I had them frozen I wouldn't have to worry about it. They are not supposed to pull personal for NO PG credit lines.
So what I ment by, you can ask for a CLI every 30 days was this.
If they decline your CLI then you can try ago in 30 days, not just randomly CLI every card every 30 days.
"Consumers in your state have the right to place a “security freeze” on their credit reports, which will prohibit us from releasing any information in their credit reports without their express authorization, except to those with whom the consumer has an existing account or a collection agency acting on behalf of the existing account, for purposes of reviewing (account maintenance, monitoring, credit line increases and account upgrades and enhancements) or collecting the account."
From the sounds of that, it may or may not work. We need data points.
01LX said: From the sounds of that, it may or may not work. We need data points.What exactly are you worried about? That a CLI could still result in a hard pull because of the existing relationship? I'm relatively certain this has been testing by win333 and others...
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Jan. 25, 2008 @ 7:27p
theman2 said: 01LX said: From the sounds of that, it may or may not work. We need data points.What exactly are you worried about? That a CLI could still result in a hard pull because of the existing relationship? I'm relatively certain this has been testing by win333 and others...
Exactly, we already know they can't put a new inquire when frozen(maybe a collection can, don't know) but they can only soft pull it for credit.
My freeze is the same as me telling experian, " I do not authorize any new credit) unless I give my code. So if a new request comes in without my code, then they know I did not authorize it.
small update - I'm assuming I'll get confirmation this weekend that my EX report is frozen.
I'm planning to start with an AOR of some business cards soon. I'm thinking about starting with Chase first (who gave me grief last AOR and close all my personal cards) and then getting as many others as I can manage. Then I'll try for CLIs with hard pulls on all my cards the same day.
I assume I can bump the INQs off my report in a couple months and then be ready for a personal AOR.
Is this too much? And should I go ahead and apply for some more personal cards before I do the CLIs? It is going to decrease my average age of accounts (which isn't great to begin with) but I don't think will be a problem unless I go so far as to get hit with some adverse action.
I don't see me unfreezing my experian for a long time. Once all my inqs fall off, I will be able to ask for CLIs without fear of A/A. Most of my cards soft pull experian for CLIs.
Rorer714 said: Put a freeze on EX for the wife and me in December. Since the 1st of the year BOA did two hard pulls on her, both TU. Not sure if it was because of the freeze or if they changed who they pulled from. They always pulled from EX for both of us.
Did BOA pull for no good reason (e.g., just b/c they discovered that they no longer can pull [hard] from EX) or did it pull in connection with new account/CC application?
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Feb. 2, 2008 @ 2:33p
No Creditor is going to pull a hard because you froze your experian. He must have applied for something or asked for a CLI.
jevon90
Addicted Member
posted: Feb. 3, 2008 @ 6:53a
so what would happen if you apply for a New AMEX card since they always pull Experian? any ideas? sorry if I overlooked this if it's been discussed but my search found nothing
fredEcat
Senior Member
posted: Feb. 3, 2008 @ 9:12a
BrilliantPebbles said: In California EX get's you coming and going.
jevon90 said: so what would happen if you apply for a New AMEX card since they always pull Experian? any ideas? sorry if I overlooked this if it's been discussed but my search found nothing
They will either send you a letter saying they need to see experian or they will pull another Credit report. I did 15 apps in Nov. 07 and only Discover asked to see experian, I ment to call but I never did.
I just did my first application post freeze which failed. Credit secure shows no new inquires on any of the three CRAs. Discover apparently attempted to pull EX and stopped when they encountered my frozen report. The application status page shows 'application canceled'. This would have been my first first Discover card. I'll update this when I get the rejection letter and try to get them to pull another CRA.
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Feb. 7, 2008 @ 3:06a
theman2 said: I just did my first application post freeze which failed. Credit secure shows no new inquires on any of the three CRAs. Discover apparently attempted to pull EX and stopped when they encountered my frozen report. The application status page shows 'application canceled'. This would have been my first first Discover card. I'll update this when I get the rejection letter and try to get them to pull another CRA.
I tried AMEX and discover about 8 hours ago, they both tried to hit experian. I tried calling but so far it's a big fat NO. But CRAP1 worked (no limit yet) and Advanta worked (no limit yet).
Discover won't give much and AMEX sucks with thier A/A, so no big loss any way.
win333 said: I tried AMEX and discover about 8 hours ago, they both tried to hit experian. I tried calling but so far it's a big fat NO. But CRAP1 worked (no limit yet) and Advanta worked (no limit yet).
Discover won't give much and AMEX sucks with thier A/A, so no big loss any way.Thanks. I just did a mini business AOR by applying for business cards from Chase, AMEX, Citibank, Advanta, Juniper, and Discover. All but one of the creditors that show application status online tried to pull experian! Hopefully some can be coaxed into pulling another CRA... Anyhow, this is exactly why I did the freeze to begin with. With my luck (and the creditors I usually focus on), almost every inquiry is on EX. At least it won't hurt my credit score because the inqs didn't happen!
If anyone has suggestions of other banks to hit, I'm open to suggestions. Currently, I have B of A is on my list if I can find any decent cards, possibly Providian/WAMU, and CapitalOne. What am I missing?
win333
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Feb. 8, 2008 @ 11:08a
As we already know AMEX and discover aren't really a great loss.
I'm trying to figure out if a creditor pulls experian, is there a chance that they'll pull a different 1 if you apply for a different card.
win333 said: I'm trying to figure out if a creditor pulls experian, is there a chance that they'll pull a different 1 if you apply for a different card.I think some are random, some are different between business and personal departments, but the major determining factor is your location. For example, almost all issuers pull EX with me and I live in CA. Looking at other posts on FWF, I often see people in other states consistently get ings from other CRAs when they apply for the same cards that I do.
Unfortunately, your resident state/zip code is one of the harder things to change...
revheck
Senior Member
posted: Feb. 9, 2008 @ 3:59a
Despite getting all the green for a good brainstorm, isn't the correct conclusion to this experiment that freezing Experian doesn't work? Most apps that pull Exp are getting denied. The only card you've managed to get approved, so far, is Advanta, which normally doesn't pull Experian anyway.
revheck said: Despite getting all the green for a good brainstorm, isn't the correct conclusion to this experiment that freezing Experian doesn't work? Most apps that pull Exp are getting denied. The only card you've managed to get approved, so far, is Advanta, which normally doesn't pull Experian anyway.Well, the prospects don't look great right now. I may still be able to convince the different issuers to pull other CRAs... and I still have a personal AOR and some bank/brokerage bonuses to go after before I'm done. It shouldn't be an issue with the bank/brokerage applications.
For people who, unlike me, aren't cursed with almost every issuer pulling EX, this would be an even better way to keep their EX report clean. Bumpage can take care of the others...
cyberkost said: Rorer714 said: Put a freeze on EX for the wife and me in December. Since the 1st of the year BOA did two hard pulls on her, both TU. Not sure if it was because of the freeze or if they changed who they pulled from. They always pulled from EX for both of us.
Did BOA pull for no good reason (e.g., just b/c they discovered that they no longer can pull [hard] from EX) or did it pull in connection with new account/CC application?ipecac said when doing CLI, they pulled EX soft (I assume)
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