The freeze will actually prevent creditors who want to pull EX and will instead need to pull EQ or TU to extend me credit. I don't have an issue with soft pulls and the only ones that seem to do soft pulls routinely are American Express and Chase on EX. So by eliminating EX for most hard pulls I minimize my chances of any adverse actions by Amex or Chase.
This sounds good in theory, but have you really applied to
EX pullers who said baically "oh well we'll have to pull
EQ instead"? I tried this same strategy and basically gave up when SunTrust moved to
EQ after seeing
EX frozen to give a "preliminary" approval, but then said they want to see me to unfreeze
EX for final approval, so I ended up getting TWO inquiries where I would have only gotten one. I think they thought I was trying to hide something!!
That strategy does work for no-doc apps that are robotically approved (like credit cards), if you don't know for sure that a bank you're applying to is 'strictly'
EQ or
TU, and in the event they're
EX, you want them to flat out deny you without having to suffer any hards, or move to
EQ or
TU if they are setup to check an alternate, and not ask any questions about the frozen
EX. However, I just do all my homework before applying, so there's no surprises what is pulled. You would be surprised how straightforward and accurate (US based) bank call center reps are with advising which of the 3 (or all 3) they hard pull.
AGREED 100% that minimizing EX pulls is the best way to prevent scaring AMEX, however that may be accomplished!! You're also certainly right-on about Chase being the 2nd most "sensitive" creditor, but will only likely take drastic measures (slashing
CL or closing) if you have a major delinquency somewhere else, but anywhere else, and regardless of if you're keeping every other account perfect. While renego a mortgage on an insolvent condo project, that account went 60 days past due in 2009, and Chase cut both my
CL's, then closed both 3 months later, even though Citi, BoA, Cap1 didn't do anything to me even after I was 180+ on the mortgage. The mortgage has long since been deleted from my file.
QUESTION: do you have an effective way to delete inquires from EQ... all their easy methods don't seem to work anymore, including using their "webmail" dispute form, disputing by phone, disputing by mail, etc. They used to be the easiest... same day deletion via their website. You don't seem too concerned with
EQ inquiries, or is that only because AMEX and Chase don't soft
EQ?
