Consumer complaint received 2023-11-07
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Reporting company used your report improperly

Complaint:
In reference to complaint # # XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX. In accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the list of accounts below has violated my Federally protected consumer rights to privacy and confidentiality under 15 USC 1681 On XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX XXXX pulled my credit report without my authorization or written permission. 15 USC 1681 section 602A states I have the right to privacy. 15 USC 604A section 2 states that a consumer reporting agency can not furnish an account with my written instructions. 15 USC 1681c ( a ) ( 5 ) states that no consumer reporting agency may make any consumer report containing any of the following items of information. 15 USCs 2 ( A ) ( 1 ) states a person shall not furnish any information relating to consumer to any consumer reporting agency if the person knows or has reasonable cause to believe that the information is inaccurate. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my mother and I ventured out to the XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXXXXXX XXXX. I was in the market of purchasing a vehicle of my choice. I brought my pre-approved auto loan letter with me from my bank, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The approval amount was for {$67000.00}, approved terms for 72 months, interest rate of 7.940 %, and monthly payments of {$700.00}. ( See attached documents ). I was instructed by the bank to present the letter to the salesman to give to the finance department for verification. When the salesman returned, he said his manager verified the information and I was good to go. 
The vehicle I chose was a XXXX XXXX priced at {$38000.00} plus fees. In the meantime, the salesman went back to his manager, exchanged some words, and returned to tell me that the finance manager would let me have the vehicle, but my mother would have to sign for me for backup as he stated it. We obviously thought we understood what he meant. The finance manager re-wrote the contract for us to sign. As my mother started to read the small print, she noticed that the contract numbers had been changed. They ran her credit and my credit without our permission and changed the monthly payment from {$700.00} a month to {$900.00}. The interest rate was changed from 7.9 % to 15 %. My mother immediately brought that to my attention and told me Dont sign that paper!. She told the salesman that they must have run a credit check on us so they could use their own finance company, which means, they deliberately dishonored my loan approval from my personal bank. This is when we realized they were trying to scam us in order to use their own finance people to get more money out of us. Thats fraud. My mother was not needed for this transaction. We excused ourselves from the salesman 's office and left. I do know that finance companies get the same credit report as the banks. So, what credit report did they get that would override my approved auto loan from my bank where they felt I did not deserve the lower interest rate and monthly payments honored by my bank? And the payment arrangement should not have been of their concern. They knew all they had to do was finish the paperwork with my bank. 
This is devastating to my good credit. I've worked very hard to keep my credit in high standards. I can not have these hard unauthorized " hard inquiries '' on my credit report.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation