Frequently Asked Questions

Partners Credit & Verification Solutions does not pull anyone’s credit report. Partners is a service provider to vendors and brokers who utilize our technology and credit bureau relationships to pull credit histories on individuals after receiving approval to do so from those individuals. If you are applying for a loan or a line of credit, a credit report will likely be pulled by the lending company to assess credit worthiness. If you were applying for a mortgage loan, for privacy reasons, Partners will show as the inquiry. A consumer version of the credit report will show the name of the mortgage company that pulled your credit. If you believe that your credit was pulled through Partners without your authorization or want to know the name of the company that pulled your credit through our system, please contact Partners to investigate (888-895-5145).

Other reasons that your credit could be pulled include account review and underwriting of insurance.

Yes. If your credit report was pulled through our system, you may request a copy of that credit report from us. Please contact our helpdesk to make this request. You may also receive a free consumer version of your credit report annually at www.annualcreditreport.com.

A credit score is a complex mathematical model that evaluates many types of information in a credit file. A credit score is used by a lender to help determine whether a person qualifies for a particular credit card, loan, or service. Most credit scores estimate the risk a company incurs by lending a person money or providing them with a service –– specifically, the likelihood that the person will make payments on time in the next two to three years. Generally, the higher the score, the less risk the person represents.

If consumers access their own credit reports, it does not have any effect on their credit scores. Reviewing a credit report results in what is called a "soft pull," or "soft inquiry," meaning it will only be seen on a personal credit report. When a consumer applies for credit, the lender will review the applicant's credit report, and a "hard inquiry" will be added. Hard inquiries are shown to other lenders because they may represent new debt that doesn't yet show on a credit report as an account. Hard inquiries can affect credit scores, however, if your credit is being pulled by multiple companies in the same industry, i.e., mortgage, consumers have a minimum of 14 days where multiple inquiries will count as one when factoring into the score. This allows consumers to shop for the best rates without damaging their credit in the process. Everyone should check their reports at least annually. It's part of good credit management.

Partners Credit & Verification Solutions does not make the decision to grant or deny credit. We supply credit history to entities that evaluate the information when making a decision. A denial, cancellation or decrease in credit limit may be due to several factors based on creditors' different lending policies. Only the creditor can inform you of the reason for denial, cancellation or decrease in credit limit. You may wish to contact your creditor for an explanation of the decision.

Every company making a credit decision can choose to use credit scores in their assessment. There are many different credit scoring models to choose from. A consumer report will have a different scoring model than a mortgage credit report uses. The report data is the same, but the scoring models rate the data differently. Standard mortgage scoring models are Beacon (Equifax), Fair Isaac V2 (Experian) and FICO Risk Score Classic (TransUnion). When comparing credit reports and scores, you need to compare the scoring models being used as the scores can vary greatly. www.myfico.com is also a good resource for credit scoring information.

Your best resource is www.ftc.gov. To submit a complaint about an issue you have with a company concerning lending or your credit report, you should visit the CFPB website www.consumerfinance.gov.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cautions consumers to be wary of companies that make claims regarding credit repair. These companies, commonly called credit clinics, don't do anything for consumers that consumers cannot do for themselves at little or no cost. Beware of any organization that offers to create a new identity and credit file for you. The FTC and state attorneys general have filed actions against those who pursue these fraudulent practices. Here are some warning signs that the FTC and others say consumers should look out for to determine if they might be dealing with a credit clinic:

• An organization that guarantees to remove late payments, bankruptcies, or similar information from a credit report
• An organization that charges a lot of money to repair credit
• A company that asks the consumer to write to the credit reporting company and repeatedly seek verification of the same credit account information in the file, month after month, even though the information has been determined to be correct
• An organization that is reluctant to give out their address or one that pushes you to make a decision immediately

For a helpful brochure about credit clinics, you can write to the Federal Trade Commission, Sixth and Pennsylvania Avenues, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004 and request a brochure titled "Credit Repair: Self Help May Be Best."

It takes time and there is no quick fix for eliminating past aspects of your credit history that may be negatively affecting your credit score. Credit scores are based on your credit history and can generally only be changed over time. "Credit repair clinics" often claim they can remove negative information from your credit report for you, but beware - these claims can sometimes be false and may even be illegal. Remember - accurate and timely negative information cannot be removed from your credit file. Your best approach for establishing credit worthiness is to handle your credit responsibly over time.

Credit scores can change gradually over time as one's overall credit picture gets better. This happens by consistently engaging in creditworthy behavior going forward, such as paying your bills on time and using credit conservatively. Here are some illustrations of the "dos" and "don'ts" of creditworthy behavior:

Do:

• Pay your bills on time. Delinquent payments and collections can have a significant negative impact on your score.
• If you have missed payments, get current and stay current.
• Pay off debt rather than shifting it to other accounts.
• Re-establish your credit history if you have had problems. Opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time may help in the long term.
• Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed.
• Keep credit cards but manage them responsibly. In general, having credit cards and installment loans (and paying timely payments) may favorably impact your credit score in the long term. If you are having trouble making ends meet, contact your creditors or see a legitimate credit counselor.
• Keep balances low on credit cards and other revolving credit. This is sometimes better than paying accounts off in full.
• Shop for rates for a given loan within a short period of time. The Equifax Risk Score distinguishes between a search for a single loan and a search for many new credit lines, partly by the length of time over which inquiries occur.

Do Not:

• Close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to try to raise your score.
• Open a number of new credit cards, just to increase your available credit. This approach could actually have a negative impact on your score.
• If you have been managing credit for a short time, avoid opening a lot of new accounts too rapidly. Adding new accounts will lower your average account age, which could have a negative impact on your credit score, particularly if you are a new credit user.

The government site http://www.onguardonline.gov/ is a great resource for avoiding fraud and scams. If you believe that you are the victim of fraud, the CFPB has published a summary of consumer rights under the FCRA regarding identity theft.

Federal and state laws may vary. Please see our Credit 101 document for details.

The account numbers shown on your credit report are reported by each creditor. For security purposes, creditors may report scrambled or truncated account numbers. Therefore, the numbers on your credit report may be different from the numbers on the actual card or account.

When a Security Freeze is added to your credit report, all third parties, such as credit lenders or other companies, whose use is not exempt under law, will not be able to access your credit report without your consent.

The Security Freeze may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application you make that involves access to your credit report. Additionally, while your credit report is frozen, companies that provide consumer data to the credit bureaus will not be allowed to update name, address, Social Security Number and date of birth information on your credit report. If there are any changes made to your name or address while your file is frozen, please notify the credit bureaus directly so that they can update your personal information, applying the relevant security freeze rules and any associated fees for your state.

If you wish to apply for a new credit account or other credit relationship, and the prospective lender or company needs to access your credit report, you will need to either remove or temporarily lift the security freeze unless the situation is one of those exempt from security freezes as defined by law. A PIN, previously provided by an individual credit bureau, may be required when lifting a freeze, and freezes have to be lifted individually by each bureau. Individual bureau information is:

Equifax
https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp

Experian
www.experian.com/freeze

Transunion
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze

If you discover inaccuracies on your credit report, please understand that these must be adjusted directly through the credit bureau reporting the information via a dispute process. To dispute, you may contact the bureaus in question or you may contact our office and we will help you with your dispute. The best way to involve us is to call our customer service helpdesk.

The credit bureaus legally provide your information to companies or individuals who purchase the information based upon certain desired consumer criteria, i.e., consumers within a given credit score range or region of a state or the country. This is how many companies send you offers in the mail or telemarketers reach you. In the instance of mortgage credit pulls, the pull can "trigger" alerts to individuals in the industry letting them know that a consumer is looking for a mortgage loan. You may then receive calls within 24 hours offering you alternatives for loans. By law, they must make you a firm offer of credit. If you do not want to receive these calls you must opt out (888.567.8688), stopping all offers of credit, mortgage or otherwise.