When you apply for a loan—like a mortgage or auto loan—your lender pulls your credit report to assess risk. This hard inquiry alerts the credit bureaus, which can then sell what are called “trigger leads” to other lenders. A trigger lead includes your name, address, and contact details, indicating you’re actively seeking credit. Other lenders purchase these leads to offer you competing loan products.
This practice is legal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), provided the offers are “firm offers of credit.” Your information is shared only because you’ve had a recent hard inquiry for a specific loan type, signaling lending intent.
Although receiving numerous unsolicited calls or offers can feel invasive, trigger leads do not harm your credit score. Credit scoring models like FICO and VantageScore group multiple inquiries for the same type of loan within a 14 to 45-day window as a single inquiry—known as rate shopping—minimizing credit impact.
To reduce unwanted solicitations, consumers can opt out of pre-screened offers and trigger leads for five years or permanently via OptOutPrescreen.com, a service endorsed by the major credit bureaus. Additionally, some lenders offer soft credit pulls or prequalification checks that don’t trigger leads or affect your score.
Understanding trigger leads helps you navigate loan applications confidently, protect your privacy, and make smarter borrowing decisions. For more on related topics, read about soft credit checks and rate shopping.
For authoritative guidance, see the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s explanation of trigger leads and the FTC’s page on prescreened offers.
