You asked one lender for a rate. Within hours, your phone starts ringing — sometimes for weeks. That is not a coincidence. That is a trigger lead.
What happens
When any mortgage lender pulls your credit, the three credit bureaus register a hard inquiry with the code mortgage credit inquiry. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the bureaus are permitted to sell that inquiry — along with your name, phone number, and enough credit data to prequalify you — to competing lenders as a firm offer of credit.
Why it is legal
Trigger leads sit inside a decades-old exception in the FCRA. Consumer groups and several members of Congress have tried to close it. It is still open.
How to avoid it
- Do not authorize a credit pull until you have chosen a lender you actually want to work with.
- Use rate research that does not pull credit. That is why CasaMint exists — every number we show you comes from public data and your own inputs, never a credit inquiry.
- If you have already been pulled, opt out at optoutprescreen.com. It stops most firm-offer sales within five business days.
The short version: keep your credit unpulled while you are shopping. Once you have chosen a lender, one pull is fine — the flood only starts when the trigger fires.
