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Have you recently applied for a mortgage, or are you planning to? If so, you might be in for an unexpected and frustrating experience. Shortly after your credit report is pulled for a loan inquiry, you could receive numerous calls from random lenders trying to win your business. This is the result of what’s known as a “credit trigger.” But don’t worry—with a couple of simple precautions, you can avoid the hassle entirely and keep your phone from ringing off the hook.
What’s Going On?
With mortgage volume decreasing significantly over the last few years, telemarketing and call center lenders are desperate for leads. They pay gobs of money to the credit bureaus—Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian—to identify which consumers are in the market for a loan.
Yes! Credit bureaus sell your critical contact information to telemarketers and call center mortgage shops!
Within 15-30 minutes after their primary lender pulls a credit report from a credit bureau, a “pay-for-leads” database automatically generates an alert, triggering incessant phone calls from telemarketing and call center mortgage lenders. This is not an exaggeration: Within the first 24 hours after an initial credit pull, a prospective borrower may receive, on average, over a hundred phone calls from pay-for-leads lenders. The calls are relentless.
Consumer advocacy groups have lobbied Congress to pass legislation banning or curtailing the practice. While our lawmakers are listening, the credit bureaus’ lobbying power has outweighed the public good. Until legislation passes, proactive protection is the only way to prevent credit-trigger headaches.
MAKE IT STOP!
Thankfully, there is a workaround to stop these calls:
1. Go to OptOutPrescreen.com – read the info on the home page, then scroll to the bottom and click the button that says: “CLICK HERE TO OPT-IN OR OPT-OUT.”
2. Follow the rest of the form, and within minutes, you will save yourself hours of angst on your next mortgage credit pull.
Within minutes, you will protect yourself from aggravating telemarketing and call center mortgage lenders who otherwise target consumers after mortgage credit report inquiries. This simple solution can provide significant relief.
Happy mortgage rate shopping!
