rupeshhari said:
ADA - the rules may be different in different countries. Remember many countries do not have credit bureaus. I was told that by signing the form, we authorize CIC to do all sorts of check on us (i didn't really read what i was signing anyway), and in some countries, that may be enough to do a check. Who knows. The laws with regard to privacy are much stricter in the US.
This is my understanding but the rules might have changed in the last couple of years.
In the US, banks are allowed to check your credit score without your consent but if they do, they have to make you a fair offer of credit. Remember, those credit card products that we used to get in mail all the time, they send it because they know our score. Nowadays, I get one offer per day. Gone are the days when I used to get 5 per day lol.
Point well made but I have different perspective of this, the rules are applied to the country you are in, so anyone outside that country doing business with you needs to follow the rules of your country of resident. Canadian governement doesn't check credits as well as the bank account, unless you have signed a document giving them access to your bank account. Obviously bank is not going to give this information to them either as US laws are applied. (I am only talking about folks who are in the US, I don't know about any other country) -
The cards you receive in the mail from the banks is not after they check your credit, they only run a soft check, they still don't know anything about your credit and social security/DOB and without it, they cannot check your credit. Soft check is debt to available credit ratio, when you have various cards with lots of limit and you won't use them, automatically your debt ratio goes down and your available credit goes up, therefore these banks or agents run this on you, they get your full name from post office and send you offers, when you apply for it, then they actually get to know who you are and if you have liens, bankruptcy or judgments, they may not give you anything - Anyway this is totally another subject.
Now if CIC check your credit or Bank Account, I don't think so unless you authorize them, according to old rule I am not sure if I signed any document like that. That is why they ask you to give them updated bank statements sometime at the end of the application. Credit check could come up if your application is in background check and they smell a credit fraud (once again through liens, judgments, child support etc.), they may ask you to provide a credit history report, they will not check your credit history secretly.
