Did you know Equifax, Transunion and Experian can sell your personal information (phone number, mailing address and email) to other mortgage lenders? They sure do, and then you get bombarded with phone calls. We’re talking 64 calls within an hour. We’ve tested it. It’s called a Trigger Lead.

What is a Trigger Lead? Trigger leads were created by the national credit bureaus. When you apply for a loan, a credit report is drawn and this action triggers an inquiry. Ultimately, the credit bureau is made aware that you are searching for a loan and has the ability to sell your information to various lenders.

We would like to help educate our buyers and give you some ammunition to prevent you from ending up on a trigger list:

1. Register at: www.Optoutprescreen.com  This will opt a consumer out of unwanted solicitations for FIVE years and it costs NOTHING. It does usually take 5 days to a week for it to take effect so the earlier this is done in the home buying process the better.
2. Sign up for the DO NOT CALL REGISTRY. Go to  www.donotcall.gov This is also Free and should take effect within 24 hours, however, a borrower may have already ended up on a trigger lead list prior to registering so you could still receive calls up to 31 days from registering. Being on the DNC list does not mean calls will stop. A consumer can still get calls for political reasons, from charitable organizations, survey calls, collections calls and some that are labeled “informational calls.” Some brokers have used this last one as a loophole to get around the DNC registry. They will claim they are not trying to sell a person anything, but they are just providing information as to other options available.
3. Sign up at www.DMACHOICE.com this will stop loan offers and other offers from coming to your physical Mailbox. There is a $2 charge for this.

None of these options are a 100% Guarantee that a borrower won’t end up on a trigger list. There are too many avenues to get personal information. Everyone has put their phone number out into the cyber world for one reason or another. Whether it is for purchasing something online, paying a bill or countless other reasons a  person might have to give out their phone number. Because of technology there are several ways to obtain phone numbers and other personal info. Even though we don’t have a way to completely guarantee that a buyer will not end up on a trigger list, there are at least some actions that can be taken that will lessen the blow.

P.S. Thank you Molly and Joel! Carolina One Mortgage 4lyfe!