BOA hard pull problem
 

I applied for the Virgin Atlantic BofA card over the weekend online, and was approved but with a small ($3000) credit line. This morning I called in and asked if I could do a credit line consolidation, moving the $5000 credit line that I have on an old Hawaiian card to the new card, cancelling the old one.

They took my social at the beginning of the call, and after I explained what I wanted the agent asked some income verification questions, then said she would put me on hold to see what she could do. At that point I said I just wanted to verify that there would be no hard credit pull, and she told me she'd ALREADY done one.

Am I out of line in thinking that's pretty outrageous?! I told the agent that BofA had pulled my credit literally 24 hours earlier, and I'd been clear from the beginning about wanting to shift existing credit, not apply for more. She told me that BofA doesn't do consolidations and still considers a credit shift an application for a credit line increase, necessitating the pull. Fine, but why wasn't I told that before she did it?

The agent filed a dispute to get the pull removed, and said I'd be contacted shortly by phone by the dispute team to follow up. This just happened, is there anything else I should do? I feel pretty irritated; am I even partially to blame here?

You are to blame. You are asking for an extension of new credit (even when you are moving existing credit lines). Checking credit is part of the extension of credit.

BOA would reasonably want to know if you have perhaps applied for other credit since you last applied for credit, be it 1 day or 1 year.

There is nothing you can do at this point. The best effort is by BOA saying it inadverdently pulled your credit a second time (which isn't quite true).

Going forward, it's important to clarify the ground rules before starting any conversation. Banks are quite rightfully trigger happy on this stuff. When bank examiners do routine audits, if this call gets pulled you can bet that an examiner would ask to see the pull associated with the "extension."

You are to blame since you called and asked. I have always believed it is a bad idea to call them and get noticed. In this case the pull is a double negative for getting noticed by drawing attention to yourself. I would be mad too but just move on and don't repeat doing anything with your credit lines

I can shift credit between Amex cards online instantly with no pull. I just moved credit between two Chase cards with no pull. I hear what you're saying about laying the ground rules from the beginning, but I did almost from the beginning here, and I feel like a pull 30 seconds into the conversation without informing the customer first is un-rightfully trigger happy.

But I appreciate the perspective and will try to not be so irritated about this.

[QUOTE=Often1;19201962]You are to blame. You are asking for an extension of new credit (even when you are moving existing credit lines). Checking credit is part of the extension of credit.
QUOTE]

Not necessarily. I asked AmEx to increase my credit line from 15K to 25K and I asked the rep if she could do it without a Hard pull. She said yes, and she increassed it without a hard pull.

Disagree!

I understand why you would be irritated. YMMV when it comes to different card issuers, especially when it comes to "any" credit line changes (increase or decreases).

Having said that, it would have been nice if the rep you were speaking with had told you in advance that a credit pull is required (I honestly don't know how effective the dispute process is to remove it).

I once had a app that went through reconsideration, and the rep specifically asked me for my permission. I literally paused for a full 3 seconds to see if it was worth it before giving my permission (and I appreciated the heads-up). Sadly, in my case, my app was still denied or it was two pulls and all for naught.

You win some, you lose some, you know? Don't sweat it. ;)

[QUOTE=koolr;19202044]You were lucky, I would still be nervous I would get a hp and not do it.
All it takes is a misinformed rep and we have all talked to one of those before. Doing it yourself online would seem safer if it can be done

To me, this (bold text) would have been a clear warning sign. I don't know how BOA operates, but I've dealt with other banks about credit limits on newly approved credit cards; however, all those were discussions with the special credit approval department agents, i.e., never the regular front line customer service agents.

[QUOTE=koolr;19202044]What that means is that the CSR didn't do a hard pull. It doesn't mean it isn't new credit.

With BOA I always close the prior account a week or two before opening the new one. They can see the recent credit line and makes it's easier to open the 2nd.

Only Chase is easy about transferring credit lines.

Agreed Chase is the easiest to work with. As pointed out each Bank has it's own protocols. I'll be sure to do more reseach so I don't get into the same problem.

You play the game, you take your chances. I wouldn't be too anal about pulls anyways unless you have gotten an actual full decline (after reconsideration and everything). Each app is a pass/fail exam. If they are approving your apps, who cares.

I've had no problems moving credit between BofA and FIA accounts. Recently I had 2 FIA accounts and applied for a BofA account. When I spoke to the credit analyst they extended additional credit AND were willing to distribute the total across the three cards any way I wanted, as long as I kept at least $5K on two of the cards that were visa signature.

I've done similar with Amex; moving credit from one account to another before closing.

A

Amex you can do it no problem, Chase also. From what the agent told me this morning though, you should have had a hard pull when you moved your credit around with BofA. Did you ever check to see if you had your credit pulled?