I'm stumped. I'm not so sure what is the right answer to your question. I'll do some research in Google and get back to you if I bump into an decent answer. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably can help you..

You got the violations, them basicly admitting they had no PP for the hard, and damages (the turned down loan). seems pretty cut and dry. give'em hell :)..

I'm not real worried about them posting payments late. We pay the payment electronically, so I have the proof of the scheduled payment. I have it set to pay 4 days BEFORE the due day. I always go in and look to make sure it posts...

I received a similar (stupid) response, and did as LKH suggested responded point by point. I closed my letter with the fact they had x days to respond or my next step would be the courthouse. I sent the letter via the Agent of Service, which placed it in the right department to settle with me...

The thing is, they do have a pp in this instance. The footnotes in the Gowen Letter shows that Congress did create an exemption to the Lending Tree mortgage industry..

Http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/gowen.htm.

The 2nd footnote gives them pp...

How do I find out who the Agent of Service is?..

Do a search at your states Corporation Commission or Secretary of State websites. It will be shown as agent for service, statutory agent or authorized agent...

Would I use my state (IL), the state the inquiry was run from (MN), or the state that my last bogus letter came from (SC)?..

Ok, I did the search. It shows the president's name and the secretary's name (This is an Illinois Corporation listing, but hey are both located in IA?) Which should I use?..

Sorry, I'm having trouble getting my brain going this morning. It also lists an agent name (Illinois Corporation Service C) and an address in Springfield. Would this Illinois Corporation Service C be who I would send it to? There is no individual named. Should I send it to all 3 (Illinois Corporation, president & secretary? That might be overkill...

Illinois Corporation Svc..

Agent of Service for WF.

And ICS' address..

Its a company that their business is being an Agent of Service..

Just send to them...it will get to the right place. I think they usually take about 24 hours...

Give 'em hell!!! And save the letter that they sent you. Should they change their story in response to your suit, present the letter into evidence. It is likely, their whole defense will be thrown out..

Be careful. Your home owners insurance may skyrocket. My dad, who has impeccable credit, saw his homeowners insurance double after 2 credit inquiries hit his report in 12 months. Should any of your insurance rates increase, add these to the damages..

Has Wells Fargo tried to remove the hard inquiries?..

My husband is the agent for our home owners insurance, so he is on top of that. As far as deletion, they haven't tried or even offered. Here is a draft of my letter to them. Everyone's thoughts and comments are appreciated. I haven't sent it yet:.

March 26, 2003.

Illinois Corporation Service C.

700 S 2nd Street.

Springfield, IL 62704-2516.

Re: Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

(Our names).

Loan #XYZ123.

Dear Agent for Wells Fargo,.

I am writing this in a last attempt to settle this amicably with Wells Fargo. I am enclosing copies of correspondence sent to and received from Wells Fargo. As you can see by reading, we applied for a Lending Tree mortgage with Wells Fargo on 6/20/02. Our credit reports were ran at that time. We closed on the Lending Tree loan the beginning of July 2002. On August 27, 2002 Wells Fargo ran 2 credit reports on me and 2 on my husband.

This is a direct violation of our privacy. Wells Fargo did not have permissible purpose to run our credit reports 6 weeks AFTER our Lending Tree loan closed..

Please reference the letter dated 3/17/03 from XXNAMEXXX, Default Reporting, regarding this matter. There are many untruths in the letter. She states the federal law applying to pre-screening criteria. These are coded as soft inquiries (promotional) with the credit bureaus and have no negative impact on credit scores. However, this is NOT what Wells Fargo ran on us. She also states that a firm offer of credit was made to us for a no cost refinance.

We hadn’t even had a payment due on our Lending Tree loan at that time. If Ms. XXXXX had bothered to look closely at our loan, she would have seen that we have a 2 year prepayment penalty. This would have barred us from refinancing a mere 6 weeks after our Lending Tree loan had closed. I am frankly insulted by her letter.

No offer of credit was extended in August. By checking our Lending Tree loan type (prepayment penalty) you will see that my statement is true..

Again, I am restating the fact that Wells Fargo did not have permissible purpose to run 2 credit reports on me on 8/27/02 nor did they have permissible purpose to run 2 credit reports on my husband on 8/27/02. This is a direction violation of the FCRA and is punishable with a fine of $1,000 per violation or damages, whichever is greater..

From the FCRA 616. Civil liability for willful noncompliance [15 U.S.C. 1681n].

"(b) Civil liability for knowing noncompliance. Any person who obtains a consumer report from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses or knowingly without a permissible purpose shall be liable to the consumer reporting agency for actual damages sustained by the consumer reporting agency or $1,000, whichever is greater.".

From the 1998 FTC opinion letter Greenblatt at.

Http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/greenblt.htm:.

"Any person who procures a consumer report under false pretenses, or knowingly without a permissible purpose, is liable for $1000 or actual damages (whichever is greater) to both the consumer and to the consumer reporting agency from which the report is procured.".

If Wells Fargo had responded promptly to my first request for deletion, the matter would not have went any further. However, I have picked up papers to file a small claims suit in Fulton County Illinois seeking $4000.00 in fines. I will be filing my paperwork on Monday, March 31, 2003, as I have scheduled the day off of work to take care of this..

I will be willing to settle this matter amicably out of court for the monetary damages plus deletions from our credit reports..

Due to the time issue here, please respond via fax at xxx-xxx-xxxx. I have repeatedly asked for this in my correspondence, and it still is sent the slowest possible route, US Postal Service. This fax number is a private fax and the information will be kept confidential..

If I have not received a settlement offer before Monday, March 31, 2003, a small claims case will be filed..

Sincerely,.

Names..

I would mention here that with these types of inquiries, they are only entitled to receive your name, address, and other limited information. WF received your entire report (see 604 (2))..

IMHO too much information. We never received such an offer PERIOD. Also, there is another FTC opinion letter that states they cannot use your entire report as a marketing tool. Might be a good place for it here (if your interested)..

This awards liability to the CRA, I would add 616 (a)(1)(B).

Don't tell them what you would have done in the first place, our what you will do to settle this. I would finish this with a date certain to respond to you, or you will be filing suit for the violations in the total sum of x. Its ok to accept by fax, but you really should send this CMRRR to absolutely prove they received it. I used" within x days of the tracked and confirmed delivery of this letter". You might also want to check the rules of your small claims court. I had to send a certified ITS before I can initiate a lawsuit..

So there is no misunderstandings - these are just my opinions!..

As is, it appears that you are giving them a choice - settle for 4k, or you'll sue them for the 4k... is this correct? If so, I'd think it doesn't give them much incentive to settle..

Also, I may be way off here, but I believe you're limited to 1k per legal action, not per violation. This is an area I'm unsure of though. If so, in my sutuation I've been thinking about the possibilities of a seperate legal action for each violation, or something to that effect. I haven't though it out very much yet though as I'm looking for clarification on the limits of civil liabilities...

Thanks jlynn and jason. I agree, I will take out the verbage about what I would have done earlier and what I will settle for. I'll just leave it, I'm filing on such and such date. Nothing else...

One other thing, I am sending this letter CMRRR, but asking them to fax back a reply to me...

Since your sending it CMRRR, I prefer to give them x days, rather than a date. It has to go to the Agent of Service, and then forwarded to the legal department. You don't want them to inadvertently miss the deadline because of mail time. 6 days (assuming you get it in the mail today) is not very long...

I would have to respectfully disagree with jason. By offering to settle the dispute for $4000, Wells Fargo is getting a bargainthe absolute minimum statutory penalty per violation. Taking it to court would add court costs to both sides plus actual damages plus the wildcard of punitive damages if you seek relief in the appropriate venue..

Rather than tell them for how much you will be suing, why not state court costs/attorneys fees/damages but do not attach a dollar amount...

Yeah, if I actually took them to court it could end up costing them quite a bit more. As far as damages, I have my report showing how my score went down and why (inquiries). It also made me dip below 600. I am back up again, thanks to a few more deletions...

As I mentioned, I have heard it said that the $1000 liability is per action taken against them and NOT per violation. I'm still searching for clarification on this as it's a significant difference..

If you think they'll bite for the full 4k, and they in fact do, I'd be more then delighted for you as it's a win for everyone here and gives us all knowledge to work with.. I just know that if it were me, and someone made that offer to me, I'd seriously consider taking my chances in court unless I knew I would lose. No legal fees really with small claims - just time, aggravation, and travel expenses (travel could be pricey on it's own). I'd wager that 99% of the legal threats they get are bluff's anyways, so they'd probably wait until the day before the court date before they accepted the fact you were in fact serious....

I'm just putting my thoughts out there, as I am on the verge of making a financial demand on a CA for violations and these are the things on my mind recently...

There's no damages there just from the score change itself.. damages would be: being turned down for a loan, getting interest rates jacked up on you, etc..

I've read of others experiences here where judges threw their cases out because of this, while others had judges more lenient. I've seen many people with court experience on here suggest one should go apply for something that will result in a denial, that way they have damages...

Worse case, he and his wife file suit separately...

Correct. I already told the poster this once in a different thread, but apparently they have chosen to ignore me. That is fine. You can sue for whatever you want and for whatever reason. But when it gets to court, the judge will put an end to it...

I typed up the papers, but haven't filed them yet. I am going to do it in 2 separate suits, one for DH and one for me..

Also, we are getting a Lending Tree mortgage for a different house, that's how I found out about the inquiries. I had never even looked before, but when my new Lending Tree mortgage ran my credit in February the first time, is when my credit dropped due to too many inquiries. I knew I hadn't applied for anything since last June, so I went in and saw the Wells Fargo unauthorized inquiries. We, incidently, are paying 1% more on our Lending Tree mortgage ($121,000). If my scores would have been higher to begin with, it wouldn't have mattered, but I was "on the bubble". So, I do have damages that can be proven. I also have my initial "preapproval at 5 3/4% and my new sheet with the rate at 6 3/4%...

When I send the letter to them and copies of both small claims complaints, should I cc anyone on it?..