I went down to a Honda dealer here in Lubbock, Texas, called Family Powersports about a week ago (this was before I bought my 929) looking at their used bikes. I found an '05 CBR600RR with 1500 miles (beautiful bike) but the price wasn't right. I told them I might consider it if they could come down on the price, and that I'd be paying cash. So they took me to a manager and he told me about their "FUNancing" option, that I could pay half now with my cash and finance the other half, just as a second option if I decided for some reason that I'd need to hang onto some of that cash. So I authorized them to do a credit check just so I could get info on interest rates and terms and all that, just so I had another option if I did decide I wanted to do that. I ended up finding an '01 929 a day later and bought it, so you can imagine my surprise when I open my mail today and have a Honda FUNancing card with my name on it, and a "Congratulations on deciding to finance your new purchase!" letter. I don't ever remember signing an agreement to apply for credit, I was told that my signature only authorized them to do a credit CHECK so I could get more specific info on rates and all that. Can they do this, and what should I do about it? I know that I can probably just cancel the card and tell them I don't need it, but should I report them to the Better Business Bureau or anything like that? It just really pissed me off that they did this without my knowledge, and opening a new line of credit like this has a negative affect on my credit report and rating. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

I'm fairly sure it will help your credit score. The more credit offered to you the higher your credit score will be. If you cancel it will negativly effect your credit score. I'd just destory your card and leave the credit open.

 

I have to agree. If you haven't used the credit at all, it will not hurt you. It is important to keep it open so that your score is improved.

 

Cancelling it will not hurt your score. Before you start to argue with me be aware that I'm an Engineer with the biggest of the credit bureaus and I work with the Scorex application that renders your score.

Keeping it will not hurt but one thing to remember is that too many cards will definitely lower your score. If you already have 2 cards then get rid of this one. Another factor that hits your score directly is the % of available credit, not the dollar amount available. Keep a small number of big cards and keep them empty.

 

TheX:

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I was pretty sure that's how it worked but wasn't exactly sure, thanks for the advice. More than anything I'm just ticked off that they did this without my knowledge. If there DOES happen to be a balance on the card, then I'm going in there tomorrow to pick up my '05 CBR600RR that I just paid $4000 for, and sell it for a nice profit

 

Guess I'm not quite sure what you're saying.. you say you authorized a credit check but not actually apply fun anything? Odds are pretty good you signed something authorizing tehm to run a credit check for the purposes of obtaining financing. I know with FUNancing they couldnt tell you anything about rates etc without actually getting you approved.

As far as whether you should cancel it or not, it depends your current credit situation. If you're young and without any established credit I'd keep it, and maybe even go buy a helmet or something on it and pay it back off so you can show a payment history on the account. If you already have a lot of established credit lines, I'd probably lose it just to keep you number of accounts down.

I run a motorcycle shop and have a long background in finance. If you wanna talk about it off line pm me.

 

sorry if my first post confused you.. here's what happened. he told me about the option to finance half of the purchase, i asked him what the interest rates were. he had me fill a sheet out with my info and i asked him if i was applying for a credit card and he told me no, but that i had to sign that sheet for him to run a credit check to tell me what sort of interest rates i'd be receiving. he was very clear that he was only running a credit check and i made him clarify that i wasn't applying for the FUNancing card, but i get a FUNancing card in the mail today. i'm still fairly young (23) but i've had a credit history for about 5 years now. when i was in high school and working for my dad, i realized that instead of paying cash for things, i could put them on a credit card and pay them off right away with my cash and build up credit that way. i currently have two credit cards, one is a Citi card, the other is a Circuit City credit card that i opened up to receive 18 months no interest on a laptop for school. would it be best for me to just cancel this card, or should i buy something on it and then pay it off? there's a helmet at this dealership that i'm probably going to buy, so maybe i should put that on the FUNancing card and then cancel it when i pay it off.

 

RMR where do you live. I'm in Lubbock and buy my oil at Family. They have some nice bikes but never put the prices on them.

 

when you apply if you get authorized they give you the card no matter what. if you choose to use it thats your choice. it isn't (yes your approved) and then you say wether you want it or not. so just enjoy having credit good enough to get approved

 

im a finance manager at a car dealership and have worked for bank of america in the past in credit. if you have 2 open lines you could keep this one without really any adverse affect, it wont affect you negatively if you close it, but opening an dclosing numerous accounts in a ashort period WILL hurt you. theX is right, its the % of balances to the credit limits that is important, and not having tooo many open lines of credit.