McCue Mortgage, the mortgage company that I work for, holds its monthly Sales Meeting on the third Friday of every month. These meetings are attended by our whole Sales Force, Underwriters, Closers, Marketing, and Secondary Marketing. We usually will cover new loan products during these meetings, as well as industry trends and news. Lately we have been bringing in some of our venders, like Subprime Lenders, PMI Companies, Appraisers, and Credit Report Companies.
Today was no different we had a Subprime vender, and one of our Credit Report Companies in for the meeting. While the Subprime representative had a lot of valuable information to share with us, it was the Credit Report representative that caught my attention. She made us aware of a practice by the three national credit bureaus Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion that has been going on for sometime, but that has just lately reach new heights in this practice. The practice that she was talking about is referred to as “Trigger Lists”
“Trigger Lists” are leads sold by the three national bureaus to anyone who chooses to purchase the information that the bureaus receive and generate when someone’s credit is pulled. You heard it correctly, these national bureaus are selling the private information that is given by Borrowers to Loan Officers when they run their credit. This means that within 12 to 24 hours after I run someone’s credit, these bureaus are taking the information that I took from my Borrower, and selling it without their permission.
I find this outrageous not only because I feel that they are violating my Borrowers privacy, but that they are also selling information that was given to me in confidence to my competitors. These “Trigger Lists” contain my Borrowers name, address, contact information, financial information, credit scores, outstanding balances on revolving debts, mortgage, and even estimates the value of their home. I had to work hard to gain a Borrowers trust for them to provide me with this information, and they turn around and sell it to anyone who wants to pay them for it.
Once one of these companies has purchased this information, they can be on the phone with my customer, using my information, to try to steer them away from me. There is one incident that was reported in which a Borrower
was called by another Lender and told that the Lender that they were dealing with had passed on the information to them, because they knew that they would be able to offer them a much better deal.
RealtyTimes gives a very good detailed account of this practice in their October 11, 2006 article entitled “Home Mortgage Applications “Trigger” Sales of Private Financial information” http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20060911_mortgageapps.htm In that article they give a great examples of how specific these “Trigger Lists” can be. They state “Most of the trigger lists are provided by the credit bureaus to Internet-based “lead generator” companies that then resell the information to lender customer. One lender, for example, might tell a lead generator to send only fresh data on consumers with FICO scores above 720 who’ve applied for a new mortgage in Texas during the prior 12 to 24 hours. Another lender might only want to see hot leads on subprime applicants in California – people with FICO scores under 620.” The information can be tailor made to what ever the Lender wants.
A major effort is being made by the “National Association of Mortgage Brokers” to put an end to this, but this will require legislation, which means it is not going to happen soon. But there is something that we can do in the mean time. We can advice our Clients to “Opt Out”. Your Clients can remove their names from these lists by calling (888) 567-8688 or online at www.optoutprescreen.com They can choose to “Opt Out” from a five year or lifetime option, and the lifetime option does not require a signed form. Obviously since your Clients information can be sold within 12 to 24 hours, they need to do this ASAP.
Starting this day forward I will be providing everyone that I run credit on with this information, and letting them know that if they are contacted by someone, this is how they got their information. I don’t know about someone else, but if someone were to contact me after I was aware of this, they would get more than they bargained for from me. I hope you share this with your Clients as well. Prepare them for the phone calls that they might receive from people who not only obtained their personal information without their permission, but also for the deception that they might try to use on them.
********************************************************************************************
Info about the author:
George Souto is a Loan Officer who can assist you with all your FHA, CHFA, and Conventional mortgage needs in Connecticut. George resides in Middlesex County which includes Middletown, Middlefield, Durham, Cromwell, Portland, Higganum, Haddam, East Haddam, Chester, Deep River, and Essex. George can be contacted at (860) 573-1308 or gsouto@mccuemortgage.com
Comments(35)