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Until ~2015 the databases holding your credit file at EQ and TU were so shoddy that you could easily remove "hard" inquiries on your credit report (those that o
by encoderer 11y ago
Until ~2015 the databases holding your credit file at EQ and TU were so shoddy that you could easily remove "hard" inquiries on your credit report (those that other people see for 2 years, and which affect your fico score for 1 year). The "trick" was to sign up for several services that let you pull your own credit every day. Pulling your own credit, a "soft" inquiry, does not affect on your score. Their databases could hold only the last 100 or so inquiries, so you just pull your credit a few times every day and you overflow the field. They had a monthly batching process to consolidate these soft inquiries, so it did take a bit of persistence, but it's an alarming look at the tech underlying this critical piece of our credit economy.
- whatok 11y agoWow, this is incredible. How has it changed since 2015?
- x0x0 11y agoyup, they figured this out and stopped it mid 2015 iirc. The above process occasionally lead to split credit reports as well, which could be a nightmare to resolve.
- artursapek 11y agoWas this technical detail made public? I'd be surprised to see them admit to something like that.
- x0x0 11y agoOf course the CRAs didn't tell people about this, but it was very widely known amongst people trying to optimize their credit score, particularly for churning or MSing. Google eg bumpage or B* and you'll find lengthy discussions...
- artursapek 11y agoWow, that's amazing.