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Email this10:06 pm
January 9, 2019
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I got an Equifax credit notification that CWB looked at my credit report. Is it normal? I thought it's usually when we apply for credit (mortgage, loans, credit cards, etc)? EQBank didn't check my credit report. I was just applying to their high interest savings account. I have a high credit score but any inquiry will lower it a bit.
11:05 pm
October 21, 2013
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Are you certain EQ didn't check you out? Hard to believe they wouldn't. They may have done what's termed a "soft" check. This is sometimes used when there is no credit being extended, and it does not affect your credit rating. Nonetheless, it has become quite common for financial institutions to do a "hard" check regardless of whether you are getting credit, and you really have no recourse if you want the financial product in question. You probably signed something that gave permission for them to do this check but you might not have noticed it amongst all the paper work.
I am under the impression that all checks through Equifax are "hard", but I could be wrong about that.
12:26 am
January 9, 2019
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Yeah it was a ''hard' inquiry instead of 'soft' one. I checked EQ and don't see any inquiries from them in the history section. It was during the time when they got a big influx of customers and had to wait several weeks for account setup. They were probably too swamped to run checks.
11:39 am
February 17, 2013
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That might explain why my credit score took a big hit in Nov...opened a Savvy saving for myself and a joint as well. Have to check Equifax to be sure, but timing is right. Seems weird they would do that for people that are already clients. Credit score went back to higher than before in Dec, so no biggie.
2:08 pm
October 21, 2013
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Equifax may have been consulted by EQ but may possibly not have recorded it. I don't know what gives with these credit agencies but my own record is almost never reliable in terms of including everything that one would expect it to include. The first time I saw it, I was actually astonished at how little was in it.
7:57 am
January 13, 2019
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This bank is a complete and utter waste of time. Not only do they do a "hard" credit check with Equifax, but in some cases (like mine) that isn't even good enough. They actually wanted a copy of my T4 before they would let me open an account! And I have opened 3 other online savings accounts without issue.
I declined to give such an organization my money.
9:03 am
February 17, 2013
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tibor said
This bank is a complete and utter waste of time. Not only do they do a "hard" credit check with Equifax, but in some cases (like mine) that isn't even good enough. They actually wanted a copy of my T4 before they would let me open an account! And I have opened 3 other online savings accounts without issue.I declined to give such an organization my money.
Sorry you had a bad experience. Don't know if I'd classify the current HISA rate leader as an utter waste of time. I use them for everyday banking and am relatively happy with them and their CSR's. They are by no means perfect, but I have yet to find a FI that checks every box. If they did a hard check and still required further verification, something must have caught their attention. Maybe they thought opening 4 HISA accounts seemed suspicious. Who knows? With all the regulations, I'd rather they did their due diligence. That being said, I fail to understand some peoples aversion to having a credit check done when they apply for credit. Isn't that the whole idea of these services? So my credit report took a hit when I applied for accounts, got a cell phone, loan, credit card....whatever, who cares? It went back up the next month to higher than it was before. I was more surprised to find Amex does a soft check EVERY month, and I rarely use them. Seems like a waste of time and resources.
It goes down, it goes up, it reflects a snapshot of your credit activity at any given time, providing red flags for both the consumer and merchant when warranted. I do wish we were able to "freeze" our accounts like other countries allow when your identity or credit is hijacked...maybe one day.
9:10 am
April 6, 2013
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Loonie said
Equifax may have been consulted by EQ but may possibly not have recorded it. I don't know what gives with these credit agencies but my own record is almost never reliable in terms of including everything that one would expect it to include. The first time I saw it, I was actually astonished at how little was in it.
I don't think EQ Bank was using Equifax or TransUnion to validate identity in its early days. Back then, I remember mailing in a cheque for an account at another financial institution with my name pre-printed. EQ Bank's system choked on the cheque you had sent them! 
Looks like EQ Bank's onboarding process is now different. Now, a credit bureau is used instead of a pre-printed cheque:
To open your new account, we need to check your details with a third-party credit bureau. By clicking Next, you give us permission to do so. This does NOT impact your credit score in any way. If you have questions about why we need to do this, please contact us (eqbank.ca/contact-us).
9:35 am
April 6, 2013
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Rick said
… That being said, I fail to understand some peoples aversion to having a credit check done when they apply for credit. Isn't that the whole idea of these services? So my credit report took a hit when I applied for accounts, got a cell phone, loan, credit card....whatever, who cares? It went back up the next month to higher than it was before. …
That probably comes from being on the outside and not knowing how lenders inside actually use the credit scores.
Many of the month-to-month fluctuations are irrelevant. Bouncing around between FICO scores 790 and 840, for example, is just an artifact of the calculations in the FICO scoring model. Such fluctuations are not predictive of anything.
Some mortgage brokers shared how lenders see the scores in the article mentioned in an earlier post.
2:29 pm
October 21, 2013
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FWIW, I have since discovered that it is quite common for FIs to reject my older-model cheques for purposes of account openings. For them, I offer 21st century ones as it's not worth arguing about and I will never win. However, most (e.g. Oaken, Meridian) will still accept the old cheques for regular deposits. They do want the money, don't they? TD always processes them promptly.
Eventually, I hope to use up all the old cheques, but it may take the rest of my life!
12:12 pm
May 27, 2016
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Loonie said
FWIW, I have since discovered that it is quite common for FIs to reject my older-model cheques for purposes of account openings. For them, I offer 21st century ones as it's not worth arguing about and I will never win. However, most (e.g. Oaken, Meridian) will still accept the old cheques for regular deposits. They do want the money, don't they? TD always processes them promptly.
Eventually, I hope to use up all the old cheques, but it may take the rest of my life!
Requirements may have changed that I'm unaware of, but it's always been my understanding that you could write out a promise to pay on a table napkin or a T-shirt if you wanted to, and it would still be legally acceptable as long as the info is complete and in proper form (date, payee, amount in longhand, amount in numeric, and a signature). Banks however don't like non-conforming payments because they have to clear them manually, and I'd be sympathetic to them charging extra for it.
FWIW I too am still writing cheques on a longstanding CIBC account which were printed in the early 1990s and I haven't had a problem yet. I figure that since all the MICR info for bank, transit and account numbers is the same and in the same order and same position on the cheque, they should work just as well as new ones. I don't try to use them as voids for opening new accounts though because the pre-printed address is from 2 houses ago -- it's not worth introducing the confusion
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