So What’s a Trigger Lead?
It’s no surprise that the major credit bureaus sell your personal information. One new form they’ve figured out how to make money is known as a “trigger lead”. A trigger lead is acquired when you apply for a home loan. As soon as your credit is pulled for pre-qualification, you’re immediately flagged, packaged, and sold by the credit bureaus to the highest bidders.
Here’s where it gets sick… For about $25 to $100 or more! Not only is your name and certain specifics about your credit report, but your address, phone number, mortgage history, and even your FICO score range are sold to call centers that consider themself mortgage companies. They then hound you for your transaction. Notice I put emphasis on transaction. These people aren’t in the relationship business. They just want to get one more deal in their pipeline. Purely numbers (obviously).
This trigger lead results in numerous unwanted phone calls and junk mail offers which are in no way associated with your real estate agent or loan professional. But expect it. It happens. It’s a sick sad world. It’s an income generating process that was conceived by the credit bureaus.
Why hasn’t the government stepped in?
Unfortunately, no legislation presently exists to prevent the credit bureaus from profiting at your expense. As a trigger lead, you are simply at the mercy of any number of too-good-to-be-true offers designed specifically to try and discredit the mortgage professionals you know and trust (yea, I’m a little bias).
In Closing
Ultimately, there are only a limited number of sources where lenders may turn to obtain mortgage money, and it’s unlikely that you will find an unbelievably low rate without an unbelievably high cost. That’s why, prior to taking an application for any loan program, I always encourage my clients to opt−out of credit bureau solicitations by visiting www.optoutprescreen.com. For new home buyers, this is the simplest way to avoid the problem altogether.
As you start on what could be the largest financial transaction of your life, it’s important to have a professional mortgage specialist on your team who has your best interests at heart.
