Consumer complaint received 2024-02-09
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card
Company: NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION (GA)

On XX/XX/2024 around XXXX XXXX, I logging into my Navy Federal online banking and started to view my accounts. Within the online banking system, they have a page for prequalified offers, and I choose to view offers for credit cards. As I filled out the required information, to my delight the page returned several offers that I qualified for and encourage me to apply. I fully understand that a prequalified offer does not guarantee an approval and a hard credit pull is required. I then applied for one of the prequalified offers and was immediately denied ( this is not the issue ) I must admit I was a bit shocked to get the denial, because I just submitted a prequalifying request with several options to choose from less than 2 minutes before I submitted the application. I then went back to the offers webpage and since their system does not allow you to hit the back button in the web browser, I had to input my information a second time on the offers page. ( I would like to add the online banking prefills my information so there where no changes or difference in my information ) To my surprise, the prequalifying offers page retuned no results and said I was not qualified for any products. 

I then attempted to contact Navy Federal at ( XXXX ) XXXX and spoke with a representative aprox : XXXX Est, and after I explained the situation, I was advised I would receive an adverse action letter in the mail. I reiterated to representative my issue is not with the denial of credit itself but the manner in which it happened and a potential system glitch. The representative put me on hold for over 20 minutes and never came back to the line as I was put back into the general IVR/customer service queue. The second rep that answered apologized and transferred me over to XXXX in the credit card department. As I explained the situation to XXXX, she did some research and acknowledged she could see where I went into the qualifying offers, submitted an application and immediately went back into the offers page. After several more minutes of research, she understood why I was questioning the validity of their system but could not provide a root cause or a solution. I asked to file a compliant so that the issue could be research to ensure Navy Federal does not have any system Gaps because this could be a potential Sales Practice issue along with Fair Banking and UDAAP. I also wanted to make sure no other customer would have this same experience. XXXX then put me on hold and came back to advise me of the following options : 1. Write a letter to Navy Federal describing the issue 2. Submit a secured message via online to Navy Federal for additional research.

I choose to submit the secured message online ( see attachment ) and what I tried to address is they have a system issue that can be misleading with their prequalifying offers returned inaccurate results to encourage client XXXX to apply. I advised them this a Deceptive practice and their response was : Thank you for your message. Because we take our members ' requests seriously, we conducted a second review of your application. The pre qualify tool does not pull credit. It is simply a tool for members to use to see if they meet basic application criteria and to suggest cards you may find useful.

We have conducted a second review of your credit card application. After careful consideration, we have determined that in accordance with Navy Federal 's underwriting guidelines, we are unable to approve your request for credit at this time.

I submitted a rebuttal because I was not challenging the fact they had permissible purpose to pull credit, I challenged due to their potential system issues, I submitted a credit application under false pretense as the returned results where Deceptive due to the second request for prequalifying offers within minutes of each other returned no credit offers available to apply. This is my issue, in which they never addressed, I was advised after a second review, they were unable to grant new credit and would receive an Adverse Action letter in the mail. I was not requesting a second review ( see attachment ) but to find a root cause to why this happened within their system. 


Thank you. 
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