When you apply for a mortgage loan with Bank Iowa, we obtain a credit bureau report from the national Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs) for each applicant as part of our underwriting process. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the CRAs notify other interested parties that subscribe to their “trigger lead” service (a service that allows other parties to pay for your information so they can contact you) that your credit report has been obtained, signaling that you may be shopping for credit. Please know, we did not sell or share your information with these third parties!
A “trigger lead” is a marketing product that is sold by the three major credit bureaus—Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax– to lenders who are looking for customers who meet certain specifications such as those shopping for specific loan types, living within certain zip codes, or having credit scores within a specified range. After a consumer applies for a loan, the lender will typically pull their credit report, signaling to the major credit bureaus the consumer is shopping for credit. The CRA then sells this information to product subscribers who often reach out to consumers via phone call or email within hours of the credit pull to provide their rate and product information to the consumer.
Trigger leads are legal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and can even benefit consumers who are truly shopping for credit products. But trigger leads can be frustrating for consumers who do not want to be solicited and think their lender has shared their information with another lender without their permission.