Talk about a mouthful of a post title! I promise though, I’ll explain what it is and why it might make sense for you, if you’re planning on getting in on the travel hacking game.
Credit Bureaus
Most people know about the credit bureaus. There are 3 major bureaus that track well, just about everything about you – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Different creditors report information to different bureaus (many times they report to all 3), and different credit issuers (banks) pull information from different bureaus, sometimes depending on what state you live in.
As an example, Credit Sesame, which is a great place to get a free idea of your credit score (note I do get a small referral bonus if you sign up through my link), uses Experian to provide you with your credit score.
Secondary credit bureaus
ID Analytics (IDA) and Advanced Resolution Systems (ARS) are two other companies that track information about your credit (cue tin foil hat). My understanding is that they mostly keep track of how many credit applications you have made.
The only credit company that I have seen that uses them is US Bank. So here’s what happens in a typical travel hacker application for a US Bank credit card (like the Club Carlson Visa or the FlexPerks card):
- You fill out the application
- US Bank processes your application and sees that, because you’ve already read and followed the Basics, your application looks great
- Then they check with IDA or ARS and find out that you have 20 credit cards already and they’re like wha-huh?!?!?
- APPLICATION DENIED!
The part that stinks about it is that unlike most pending or denial decisions, there’s really nothing that can be done. If you try to call the reconsideration line, the US Bank analyst will basically just tell you that because of information from IDA or ARS, your application was denied, and to try to take it up with them.
Freezing IDA / ARS
Fortunately, it’s very easy to freeze your reports from IDA / ARS. I was not that familiar with the concept of freezing your credit report, but it’s not uncommon. Typically, some reasons that you might want to freeze your credit report are if there is something bad on one of the bureaus, or if you have (or suspect you have) been a victim of identity theft.
Thankfully, I personally haven’t had to deal with that, so I don’t have personal experience, but if you freeze your report (something the credit companies are legally obligated to allow you to do), then anybody who asks for a credit report about you from that bureau will just get a blank report.
If you freeze one of the “Big 3”, then that can cause you to be denied for credit. Scenario would be that you freeze your TransUnion credit report, then try to apply for a car loan from a dealership that pulls TransUnion. They see that you have no credit, so they deny your application (or charge you the highest interest rate)
But IDA and ARS are more secondary bureaus. Credit issuers do not ask them for information as a primary source (at least not that I’ve found or heard of). So going back to our example from before:
- You fill out the application
- US Bank processes your application and sees that, because you’ve already read and followed the Basics, your application looks great
- Then they check with IDA or ARS and find no information about your last several churns (or any information at all!)
- APPLICATION APPROVED!
How to Freeze IDA / ARS credit reports
It’s actually pretty easy to freeze these reports. Just googling for it will give you tons of information. The steps I took (complete with form letters) came from an article on the website Travel with Grant.
The basic idea is that you send them a letter telling them you want to freeze your report, and provide them with some basic information (Driver’s license, SS card, etc.) and after a few weeks, your report is frozen. The exact rules of how you send in the information vary by state (in Ohio, I could fax or send by mail). For questions,
- ARS – 800-392-8911 (Opens at 8AM EST)
- IDA – 866-248-7344 (Opens at 8AM PST)
One note – faxing actually didn’t work as when you fax a driver’s license it makes it very hard to read. The customer service rep actually warned me about that but I tried it anyways. I got a nice letter in the mail telling me that my faxed driver’s license was unreadable and telling me to resubmit, so I ended up just mailing the copies in.
A few weeks later I got a letter in the mail confirming that my reports had been frozen, along with a PIN in case I ever want to unfreeze them.
Aftermath
I applied for the Club Carlson Visa as part of my very first churn, and was approved as it was my first credit card application in quite some time (so my IDA / ARS had nothing bad). A few months later, Carolyn tried to apply for the same card and was denied because we had not frozen these reports. We then froze these reports
Recently I applied for and was approved for the US Bank FlexPerks card and was automatically approved! So there’s another data point that freezing these reports works, and is just about mandatory if you want to get any US Bank cards if you already have several cards.
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I got burnt by Club Carlson. My only pending>denial. I’ll have to make sure I do this next time.
That’s interesting. I’ve never heard of that. My husband applied for the Carlson VISA in December and was instantly approved. He has ,I think ,15 or so open accounts right now. Of course his credit score is over 800 so maybe that helped.
I assumed US Bank just used an average of the “Big Three” scores. I will have to look into this because I plan to apply for the Carlson card on my next churn in April and I don’t want to get burned! :O
There’s a thread on flyer talk about it – Like CBD who also commented, I was denied by Club Carlson. It takes only a few moments of time to do so I would definitely recommend it.
BTW Congrats on the new blog – I checked it out a bit this evening. Are you on Twitter?
I have a personal Twitter account that I rarely use. I just don’t “get” Twitter. :O I know I should start one as “Have Child, Still Travel” but I haven’t yet. Do you think Twitter has attracted more readers to your blog?
First I’ve ever heard this mentioned. Once you’ve frozen the IDA/ARS, what shows up in the FICO hard inquiries report? Does each lending institution see only its own inquiries when it makes a new hard pull? Does the two-year rule still apply to existing hard pull history?
As I understand it, IDA/ARS are secondary institutions that track information about how many credit pulls you have. So if you freeze them, then the FICO information just shows up the basic information. I’m not a credit expert by any means but I do know that my wife applied for a card from US Bank, was denied and specifically given these 2 companies as the reason when she called them on the phone. Once we froze IDA/ARS, she re-applied and was approved immediately.