If you have recently applied for a mortgage, credit card, or other type of personal loan with Sullivan Bank, you may have been immediately contacted by other lenders or third parties with unsolicited offers. When a lender pulls your credit report to facilitate your credit request, this “triggers’ a lead that is created and sold by the national credit bureaus; Equifax, Trans Union, Experian, and Innovis; AKA trigger leads.  Sullivan Bank considers your safety and security a top priority and does not sell or give out your information.  Other lenders or third-party solicitors purchase trigger leads from the credit bureaus and use that information to contact you, typically within a few hours.  The solicitors do not have access to Personally Identifiable Information (PII), rather that there has been a recent inquiry related to a specific credit request which is an indicator for them to contact you and compete for your business. 

Trigger leads are legal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which preempts all, but a few particular state laws passed before 1971. Although there is little that states can do to regulate trigger leads, Sullivan Bank supports measures and proposed legislation designed to protect the financial privacy of mortgage applicants. While trigger leads are legal and can allow borrowers to weigh various options, we encourage our customers to be on high alert when contacted with unsolicited offers. It is important to do your due diligence in order to avoid engaging with un-reputable lenders. Trigger leads could expose you to a number of problems such as harassment, identity theft, deceitful lenders and cause confusion while taking out a loan. As your community lender, Sullivan Bank will always be your reliable, trusted partner who will keep your best interests in mind.  If you have questions, please reach out to us. 

Thankfully you have opt-out options to stop your information from being sold and shared.  Keep in mind it may take time for an opt-out request to be processed and in some cases, it may take up to 31 days to go into effect. If a hard credit inquiry has recently been pulled, it may take longer.  We recommend starting the process as soon as possible to stop unwanted solicitations. 

Sullivan Bank is committed to customer privacy and does not sell customer information to third parties. When you provide personal information to us, we honor the trust placed in us by maintaining the confidentiality and accuracy of that information.  If you have any questions about protecting yourself from trigger leads or any other aspect of the credit process we are here to help. 

This content is general in nature and provided for informational use only. This is not to be considered legal, tax, accounting, financial or investment advice. You should seek individualized advice from personal financial, legal, tax and/or other professionals, as appropriate depending on the specific facts of your situation. Sullivan Bank does not make any warranties as to the completeness or accuracy of this information and have no liability for your use of this information.