Consumer complaint received 2022-11-30
Company: Upgrade, Inc.
State: MD
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Problem with personal statement of dispute

Complaint:
Around XX/XX/2022 I applied for and accepted a credit consolidation loan from XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX under the name Upgrade ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX CA XXXX XXXX ). I have no issue or problem with this loan, it is preforming as promised. 

After the consolidation loan was processed, flawlessly, XXXXUpgrade solicited me several times at my email address, to apply for " The Upgrade Card '' with " no inquiry to my credit report and no impact to my credit score ''. The account was to be {$500.00} credit line, and it seemed logical there would be no credit inquiry since XXXXUpgrade had just pulled my my credit so recently on XX/XX/2022. I completed the application through a very speedy and simple process through the XXXXUpgrade electronic channel on approximately XX/XX/2022. 

When the Upgrade Card arrived in XXXX, I saw many terms I was not aware of during the application process, and specifically unsatisfying there was no grace period for finance charges, ie charges accrue immediately. I have no need for such a product and felt misled by the clever and timely marketing which I believe did not explain these terms. So I contacted XXXXUpgrade by telephone to close the card and complain - and then found out that XXXX/Upgrade had made a credit inquiry related to this product. I checked on several credit monitoring sites and saw the hard inquiry - in talking with the agent at XXXX/Upgrade I was advised that I likely missed the disclosure about the credit hit that would follow after approval - which I do not believe occurred otherwise I would have abandoned the application and never would have accepted this product as its useless to me. The representative at XXXX/Upgrade offered to help by requesting a removal of the inquiry, understanding how my experience felt wrong, and informed me that a decision and removal could take up to 60 days, and to leave the account open until that outcome which I would be best informed of by monitoring my credit report. I received no further communication about the claim I made, re : misleading application process, credit inquiry without full and complete disclosure or at least a warning. On XX/XX/2022 I called XXXX/Upgrade to determine the status, and the agent told me I was denied and offered to send a copy of the denial to my email since I claim i never received it. During this call I also explained to the agent that I felt misled by the application process and by the product, and asked that the Upgrade Card be closed immediately, the agent complied and told me there was no removal of the inquiry. 
I would like to reiterate that I never used this card, and kept the account open till today on the advice of XXXX/Upgrade. I feel based on the slick and misleading application lure, and the fact that the product is really not designed for my needs, that XXXX/Upgrade should remove the inquiry from my credit report, especially since they'd already inquired and booked a loan for me within a couple of weeks, and based on that credit report determined to lure me in to another product. Hitting my credit report with another inquiry in such a short time is not only unfair and deceptive, it's also harmful for my ability to access other credit solutions. I also worry that other consumers could be harmed in this process.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation