Have you ever made an application for a mortgage or an insurance product and within hours started to get unsolicited calls for those same products? This is called a Trigger Lead.

TransUnion, Experian, Equifax and Innovis sell your data to mortgage and insurance companies whenever you have made an application for those types of products. The bureaus argue that this allows consumers a better way to shop around for those products, helping to ensure they are receiving the best rates possible. Mortgage and Insurance professionals argue this is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act because the Consumer has not given anyone permission to release their information to a third party.

Several bills have been introduced in the US Congress to curtail this practice by amending the FCRA. Much of the amendments would further define the nature of the consumer/creditor relationship with respect to who has access to your data but one amendment may include limiting altogether who has access to your data when you make an application for a mortgage or insurance product. For example if you have a mortgage loan with ABC Loan Servicing and make an application with New Town Mortgage, ABC Loan Servicing should be able to contact you in order to retain your business.

While we await any proposed changes to the FCRA, there is something you can do in the meantime. You can opt-out (or in) from company offers of credit or insurance products for up to 5 years. This way if you don’t mind being bombarded with sales calls, you can stay opt’d in. But if you prefer to do your own shopping with companies of your choice, you can opt out. The website to manage your preference is optoutprescreen.com.