Don’t Be Me – Optout Prescreen is Your BUDDY

by TJ Courtney

Recently, I applied for a Home Equity Line of Credit. Pretty low threat, straight forward process. Unfortunately, I didn’t do what I have recommended as a first step to my mortgage and real estate clients for years which is:

OPT OUT AT OPTOUTPRESCREEN.COM

By not following my own advice, I bought myself three days of over 50 spam calls known as “trigger leads.” What’s worse is that my wife received them, too, and let me tell you, the spam calls pale in comparison to the ire my wife has for me right now.

So let’s talk causation and prevention: What causes these overly annoying daily interruptions to your life?

Let be begin by setting the record straight: this isn’t caused by your Realtor or Lender, so calling them asking for relief will unfortunately not help. When you apply for any type of home mortgage, the lender will pull your credit score. This “triggers” the three credit bureaus to sell your information to lenders who pay for these leads.

Currently, this practice is legal as long as the consumer is not on a “Do Not Call List.” The calls will start at 8 a.m. local time, so if you’re a late sleeper, put those phones on silence.

The pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow is that there is legislation currently before congress that will basically restrict these calls to companies that either currently service your current mortgage, or those that you have applied with.

So, how could I have prevented three days of “cell hell”? I could have registered myself and my wife on the Opt Out Prescreen website. However, here is where I quibble to defend my honor. In my case, it most likely wouldn’t have helped as we applied for a short notice HELOC and needed to apply quickly. The Opt Out process often takes days or weeks to go in to effect, so I was most likely doomed to the damnation that followed hitting the submit button.

As written in the tag line, if you are even considering any type of home mortgage (Primary Home, Second Home, Cash Out, HELOC, etc.) in the coming weeks, months or years, do yourself a favor and take a couple of minutes and opt out. The program sometimes takes 30 days to process, but you’re in the system for five years. That’s five years of protection against these “trigger leads.” So… the bottom line… do as I say and not as I do. OPT OUT NOW!