We received a pre-approved notice to take advantage of utilizing some of our home equity. We receive loads of these offers but this one stood out as it stated due to our excellent mortgage payment history & credit history it was a firm offer. It went on to say we wouldn't be turned down as long as the info they received from the credit bureau was correct and we met program requirements (program requirements were never defined). I rang the 800 number and strongly stipulated we don't want to ding our credit scores with unnecessary hard credit inquiries until there is a "real" firm offer. We provided bank statements, mortgage statements, our license id's, and tax statements. The loan officer, Bryant, on a few occasions didn't respond to emails which weren't a good sign. When we pressed for the final word he finally lowered the boom that he couldn't get approval on any type of loan. So a month later while monitoring our credit reports we saw that AFN ran a hard inquiry without our authorization as we didn't provide our Social Security number! The only way they could have gotten the info was to take our SS numbers from our tax returns. Beware! Don't get sucked in by their big promises and underhanded tactics only to get turned down. read more