Consumer complaint received 2021-02-05
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: VA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Credit inquiries on your report that you don't recognize

Complaint:
My wife and I opened PenFed accounts on XX/XX/XXXX, with me as the member and primary account holder and my wife as a joint account holder. The Member Services individual at the branch who established the membership told us that a soft credit pull would be required to open a premium online savings account, which we had to perform on a later date. 
When we came back on XX/XX/XXXX to complete that process, we were helped by a new Member Services employee. We asked her to confirm that it was only a soft credit pull required, and she said at first that a hard credit pull would be required. When we objected based on our previous conversation, a branch manager corrected her and confirmed to us ( again ) that only a soft credit pull would be required. We subsequently opened the joint savings account on XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, my wife and I pulled our credit reports for XXXX and XXXX through XXXX. While my credit report showed only a soft inquiry, my wife had a hard inquiry issued by PenFed on XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX. We were unable to access our XXXX credit report at all, so we do not know for sure that the other bureaus dont have a hard inquiry on that date either. 
My wife and I spent several hours on the phone with PenFed on the XXXX immediately after discovering the issue, and have had to take time off work and meetings and have devoted multiple days ( 6-8 hours each ) in the week following, to spend on the phone with either PenFed or XXXX We spoke with at least three different customer service agents and Member Services representatives, all of whom eventually agreed that a hard credit pull should not have been performed. On several occasions, my wife, who is a XXXX XXXX with one of the top five banks in the US, had to step in to correct fraudulent claims that the agents tried to make. Specifically : The first customer service agent we spoke to told us that a hard credit pull is required for all accounts that are opened, but could not explain why my wife was disproportionately targeted by this requirement as a secondary holder on a joint account while I was not. 
After my wife challenged her, and after she went back to do some research, the agent claimed the pull was because of the Patriot Act, which my wife, who is aware of BSA/KYC and OFAC regulations, knew does not require a hard pull in this case and is commonly used as an excuse/cover up for discriminatory practices. 
The second customer service agent first claimed that the hard pull was permanent and could not be reversed. He eventually agreed to put in a credit bureau case to review, which he said would take 30-60 days to complete. 
During a follow-up call on XX/XX/XXXX, this second agent claimed that they had no way to expedite reversing the process with XXXX, even though PenFed has direct contacts with this credit bureau, because they didnt have enough manpower resources to take care of it. At this point, my wife has had a hard inquiry on her credit report impacting her score for almost a month already, and she is now facing negative impacts for at least two more
months. This is predatory practice that impacts her ability to borrow, and occurred for her despite the fact that 1 ) I am the member for the account and had only a soft pull performed, 2 ) my wife is the joint account holder for these accounts, and not the primary account holder, and 3 ) neither I nor my wife had requested any credit products from PenFed at all. 
This action and subsequent conversations with PenFed have been discriminatory based on gender and race/country of origin ( in that they pulled my wifes credit exclusively, who is a woman and has a foreign sounding name, but not mine ) and fraudulent ( in making claims of banking regulations that are not factual or accurate ). Further, a month after the pull, my wife has not received a written copy of the report for the hard inquiry they conducted on XX/XX/XXXX, despite PenFed being required to do so. Its clear that if we hadnt been monitoring our credit and been aware of the specific BSA/KYC and OFAC regulations ourselves, PenFed would not have informed us of this event at all, and we would have been lied to by the agents on multiple occasions.

We request urgent corrective action to address these issues. Not only is PenFed openly/blatantly discriminating and targeting customers based on their country of origin, race, and/or gender, as was the case with my wife, it is intentionally misleading customers who have no background, knowledge, or information about banking policies and regulations ( which fortunately for us, my wife does ). They have made false claims, lied about specific regulations, and have yet to take corrective action to fix this issue, despite it being indicative of systemic and direct violations of FCRA ( and other ) regulations and we ourselves having to correct PenFed employees on their obligations to their customers.

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 non-monetary relief