Consumer complaint received 2023-06-26
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
RE : APPLICATION XXXX XXXX On or about XX/XX/XXXX I received in the mail an unsolicited " pre-approved '' offer for a Visa from PenFed, with a unique ID number to input on their website to accept the offer and to input my income and housing expense information ( which was $ XXXX and $ XXXX, respectively ) as well as my full SSN and email. After doing so, instead of indicating my credit line and APR I received a message that the application was under review. 

A day later I received an email requesting that I upload a full color copy of my ID, which I did. I called to follow up that it was received and verified with their agent that it was received and accepted, and that the application would now be forwarded to an underwriter for further processing which would take a couple of days. 

Two days later, I noticed on my XXXX Credit Report that XXXX had done not just one, but TWO had pulls of my credit file in addition to the previous soft full for the pre-approval offer they sent me- leaving a total of 3 inquiries on my XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called again, speaking with " XXXX '' and was told the application was declined based on information on my XXXX credit file. There is no difference in the data elements provided to creditors between a soft and a hard pull. All of the information I placed on the offer acceptance matched with what's on my XXXX credit file, and the only difference in the reports between the time of the soft pull for the pre-approval and the hard pull at time of acceptance was that my credit score had gone up about XXXX points to about XXXX, credit balances had gone down, and my utilization ratio had dropped 2 points from 6 to 4 %, no additional inquiries, no derogatory information or public records, whatsoever, and no change in personal information of report flagging- so an excellent credit report had just gotten even more attractive. 

So I asked XXXX why they sent me a pre-approval based on information they had, which they never intended to honor, even when they verified the information had not changed or had gotten even better? She had no explanation and would not specify what data element of the hard pull the declination was based off of. 

I asked XXXX why they had fouled my credit report with an extra, unnecessary hard pull only a day after they did the first one. She had no explanation. 

Based off of the irregularities and inconsistencies of PenFed 's actions and statements, I am left to conclude that : 1. Their pre-approved offers are false advertising employed for the purposes of data mining at the expense of their victims credit scores, or 2. They are discriminating against applicants based off of information other than that provided by the applicants and their credit reports, and/or 3. They are not accurately or honestly disclosing their reasons for adverse actions against applicants.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation