[Cfairbank]

I have a merchant that gave me permission to pull his credit once. I sent him to only one lender and that was it. Merchant got like 7 pulls and is freaking out 5 say exprian only,one I sent it to and the 7th one has their name. Merchant called that lender to see why they pulled his credit and they forwarded him my application to show they have the right to . He asked them if they got it from my company and they said no,we received it from someone else .
Now I need help with 2 things .
1.merchant wants all pulls removed .is there anyway to do this. If not he wants to sue and wants to know who to sue . How does he even find out who the other lenders are.
2. I do a ton of business(did 700k last month alone with them) with the only lender I sent it to .do I contact them and risk it esclading and losing my renewals or just leave it alone?
Any real advice .will love to see a lender ceo that are on here advice.

1. Absolutely they can get it removed from the file if it truly wasn't a legitimate pull. Anyone who is a lender and works with ISOs has received a letter like that, some are legitimate, some aren't -- candidly, you probably want credit heads vs. CEOs -- we won't run credit on an app from a different ISO, but I also know some companies will -- but sounds like you have seen the app already and know it was yours? Merchants can get their own credit reports from bureaus or they can get it immediately on credit karma (first pull free). But if he knows he got all the other pulls, I assume he already has the credit report? Credit Karma will give you one free report. The report will also tell him every company that pulled (to your second part of point one). And lawsuits, that's a waste of money, but for your sake, make sure you language that allows lenders to pull is very tight And his credit report will tell you whoever did a hard pull and when they did it. It will not show soft pulls.

2. It's rare in this space to have all actors operate above board, but you can (and should) bring this up with them and you don't have to start a fight or risk losing business, and if played right, you can back-off at anytime; there is zero reason to make it confrontational (e.g. "I value you guys a ton as a partner, so want to make sure I give him a good answer. could you help us out?"; if they get mad at that, that's ridiculous. I know we would have zero issue receiving that question from even our newest ISOs - you're trying to resolve a situation, I see no issue with asking that if it's a funder/lender that doesn't backdoor files. If you say something like Personally, I'd raise it (without confrontation) to your deal rep first, and if he just starts yelling at you, either he's lying or you have the wrong rep -- not the type of rep I want my customer's to deal with. And if that goes no where, ask for the CEO. I know I personally don't talk to partners on a day to day basis, because I don't run sales. But when there is an issue raised to my attention, doesn't matter if you are a one man shop or one of our largest, you bet i'm on top of it -- and if this is an A or B guy, I'd assume a similar reaction. Obviously, if you are a key partner and it's an honest company this is a no brainer.

Just because most folks in this space jump into confrontation ("YOU STOLE MY DEAL" or whatever), not only is that not effective or productive, but it's also a way to ensure it never gets resolved. Disputes are so easily solved if you dig for info without making acquisitions. I am absolutely not saying you would be yelling (and i'm sure you know this, but it's crazy how many things can be resolved amicably in this space if you ask versus accuse), just saying a lot more is resolved with questions instead of accusations.

And like I said, make sure you credit pull language is tight because it ultimately could hit you also.