Consumer complaint received 2017-02-28
Company: Home Loan Center, Inc.
State: PA
Product: Consumer Loan
Sub-product: Vehicle loan
Issue: Shopping for a loan or lease

Complaint:
I submitted an online request for car loan rates from lendingtree.com. Through the course of submitting my information, I was asked for the last " XXXX '' digits of my social security number for verification purposes. Then, on the final screen of the online request form I was asked for my entire social security number. After submitting my request, in the " fine writing '' at the bottom of the web screen it states that some of the lenders will perform " hard pulls '' of my credit to verify their quotes. 

I immediately called lending tree to ask that my application be canceled. I was told by lending tree that my request had been canceled and no lenders would pull my credit. 

I was not explicitly told, via their web intake forms, that " hard pulls '' would be performed on my credit. There are other sites like XXXX XXXX, that provide quotes for prospective borrowers, based on the information submitted. However, to verify the exact loan amount obviously a " hard pull '' would have to be performed and income verified if one chose to move forward with the loan. 

After getting off the phone with the agent I began receiving phone calls and emails from prospective lender. XXXX is one such lender, that verified that my credit " had '' been pulled in order to provide me the loan and rate they provided. 

I think lendingtree.com 's practices were misleading and predatory. If they intended to perform a " hard pull '' of a prospective users credit, I believe they should have explicitly stated that as opposed to burying this information in the fine print of their web browser that is only legible " after '' a user has submitted their information. Consumers are right to try to protect their credit scores. Those of us that are informed understand that multiple " hard pulls '' on our credit has negative ramifications. 

I think lendingtree 's practices show that they are not concerned with protecting consumer 's rights but only with maximizing their potential for increased profits, by providing lenders with the maximum number of potential leads as is possible. I was mislead by the customer representative agent, that told me that my account would be canceled and no lenders would perform " hard pulls '' on my credit report. She blatantly lied. As an agent, I am sure she was aware that as soon as I hit " send '' my information would be blasted to potential lenders. 

As opposed to apologizing for her companies failure to explicitly inform me that a " hard pull '' had been performed, she lied to me and told me that " no lenders would perform hard pulls '' and that my account would be closed, so that no lenders would have the opportunity to access my information. The fact that she lied to me makes me furious. I have attached a copy of my credit score that was pulled by XXXX of the lenders. Consumer finance companies have engaged in deceptive practices for a long time. I may be XXXX person but I hope that you look into this matter and stop lendingtree.com from continuing to perform in this manner. 

Thank You

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation