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Working with a Customer's Bank for Routine Requests
Questions from our Readers
By Michael C. Dennis, MBA, CBF

Question. How can I get a customer's bank to respond to a routine request to verify their relationship with an applicant, and is there any way to avoid the fees that banks, more and more frequently are charging for this service:

Answer. Remember, there are no federal laws that require banks to share information about their customers with other banks or other creditors. If the customer's bank refuses to respond at all, or insists that you submit a request for the information you need via U.S. mail, one idea is to call the applicant/customer, explain the problem and ask them to arrange for their bank to respond to the request promptly. In response to your question about the fee, these fees are a significant source of revenue. Unless banking laws are changed and banks are precluded from charging these fees it is hard to imagine they will disappear any time soon.

This information is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor a substitute for legal advice.

4/21/03 Reader Comments:
In reference to your comments that a creditor can do little about paying service charges from a bank in order to obtain a credit reference. Here is a suggestion that has worked for me: Have your customer provide a bank officer's name and direct fax number and fax your inquiry to that person along with your customer's written authorization to release info. This often gets you that reference without having to pay a service charge.

Submitted by: Joanne Simone, Credit Manager, Namasco Corp.

 
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