Consumer complaint received 2015-09-22
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: ME
Product: Credit card
Issue: Credit line increase/decrease

Complaint:
So I have a Discover credit card. On their online banking service, they have the option to request a Credit Limit Increase. Whenever I got to that page, it asks for income, employer, and monthly housing payment. Below that is the following message : '' After reviewing your application, we may need to pull a credit bureau report, which may affect your credit score. In these cases, we will proceed with the application only with your consent. " Below that message, it says " Submit '' or " Cancel ''. Now, maybe I am naive, but I took the message " In these cases, we will proceed with the application only with your consent '' to mean that in cases where they need to pull a credit report, they will specifically ask me if I want to proceed. I think that is a reasonable interpretation of the verbiage. I will include screenshots so you can verify what I am seeing. 

Anyhow, I proceeded with this on XXXX XXXX, 2015, under the impression that if Discover wants to pull a new CBR XXXX and thus cause a hard inquiry ) they will ask me for my consent. Well, when I hit the submit button, Discover immediately responded with " Congrats, you 're approved ''. There was no screen after hitting submit that asked for consent to pull a Credit Bureau. I thought " ok, that was easy, no problem. '' Later that day, I received an alert from my credit monitoring service that there was a hard inquiry from Discover on that very day on my XXXX CBR. I did n't put in any other requests or applications. 

When I approached Discover about it, they either did n't understand me, did n't understand their own system, or simply refused to acknowledge the situation. Here is my request and below that their response : On XXXX XXXX, 2015, I utilized the credit limit increase option on your website. When I went there, it said the following : " After reviewing your application, we may need to pull a credit bureau report, which may affect your credit score. In these cases, we will proceed with the application only with your consent. '' That is what it says today if I were to use the option again. Unfortunately, Discover never did ask for my consent, and they DID pull a CBR. There is now a hard inquiry on my credit report from that date. I feel this is quite misleading, and because I was misled, I respectfully ask that you convert this hard inquiry to a soft inquiry, or remove it all together. This is a not a case where I was " unaware ''. I was intentionally misled by your website, and assuming I am still being misled today by the verbiage. 

If this is not resolved properly, I will submit my experience to the OCC and CFPB. 

Thanks, XXXXResponse from Discover : -- -- -- - Original Message -- -- -- -- Date : XXXX XXXX, 2015 XXXX XXXX : Re : Other Credit Line Questions [ # XXXX ] Sender : Discover Card Customer ServiceGood afternoon. 

Thank you for your message. I appreciate your business and the time you have taken out of your day to contact me today about the hard pull reflecting on your credit file. I understand your interest in having this information correct and I am happy to assist you today! 

When you arrive at this page of the credit line increase application, it specifies that we will need to process a credit pull and if you agree/authorize the hard pull, we will continue with the application ; however, if you decline the authorization to pull your credit file, your application will be withdrawn and no credit pull will take place. 
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -From there the Discover rep advises me to file a dispute with XXXX XXXX I know that will be ineffective if Discover does not admit they made a mistake. 

So, I 'm not sure the CFPB can help me with my CBR, but I DEFINITELY think they should contact Discover about this verbiage. I do n't think my interpretation of it is at all unreasonable. It think it is very misleading and unnecessarily so. 

Thank you for your time.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation