The Credit Bureaus require consumer consent before performing a soft pull to prequalify a consumer. There are three different ways to get consumer consent.
Electronic Consent: This is one of the most common methods. This is very convenient as it gives the consumer the ability to initiate the process on their own. It also allows your business to use this as a lead generation tool to email prospects a link to your application and enable consent at the bottom of your form. Soft Pull Solutions is proud to offer an integration from your web application right into our credit report platform. Click Here to See An Example From Our Demo Account. All electronic consent forms are stored in the Soft Pull Solutions platform where you can retrieve them at any time and see the consumer's IP Address. This process also allows Soft Pull Solutions to offer more automation with compliance and pre-approval messages to the consumer.
Phone Consent: This is usually the preferred method for businesses that have call centers, or send employees onsite to the home/business of their prospect. Perfect examples might be solar companies or home improvement companies who don't want to send an employee onsite to give a bid, just to find out the prospect would never get approved for financing in the first place. This saves them time and money! Call Centers and other businesses that spend a lot of time on the phone enjoy the benefits of Phone Consent as it can much easier for the consumer to agree or "consent" to having a soft pull performed. The call needs to be recorded and stored for at least five years.
Written Consent: This is the least common of the three methods when it comes to soft pulls. This is pen and paper and is typically only done if the consumer is meeting with you in person. The consent form can include the same language and the same fields that you might use for your "electronic consent form" (mentioned above) but now you would have the consumer sign something "physically" with "wet ink". Occasionally we still see some businesses use this method where they will email a written consent form to the customer, have them sign it, and then scan/email it back. However, this is rare and creates a poor customer experience.
Please Use the Downloadable Forms Below to View or Print
Downloadable Forms
Feel free to utilize our resources with consent forms. Please check with your legal team before implementing as part of your processes.