DirectTV doesn't require a loan, right?

February 17, 2025 4:02 PM

My sister told me she is getting DirectTV for her house, which, sure, whatever. But she also tells me that there was a hiccup in the process when they tried to access her credit since her credit is locked, and they had to use her husband's instead. Does this ring alarm bells for anyone else? I'm not sure how this is supposed to work.

Start from the premise that I understand very little about this. But I persuaded her to lock her credit down with the three reporting agencies (experian, and... the two others...) after one of the big security breaches a few years ago where everyone's information went public. I thought she'd only need to open it up if she was applying for a loan or a credit card. Why would signing up with DirectTV require accessing this information? I can understand them requesting a credit score but not this. Or am I wrong about everything and even a credit score cannot be accessed from a locked down account?

posted by Vatnesine to Work & Money (6 answers total)

No, it isn't unusual. I don't know specifically about DTV, but many monthly services that lease or give you equipment or have a contract term will pull a credit score or report, which is blocked if you have blocked them.
posted by theclaw at 4:17 PM on February 17 [7 favorites]

I haven't had satellite TV in almost ten years, but (back then at least) a typical contract is something along the lines of "We'll pay someone to come out and install the equipment, and loan you the equipment you need, and in return, you give us money every month for at least two years, and give us back the equipment when you're done with it."

So while there's no cash loan up front, they are effectively giving you stuff now in return for money later - and they want to make sure that you're going to stick to the agreement to give them money later.
posted by Hatashran at 4:40 PM on February 17 [3 favorites]

Yeah they are essentially leasing you the dish, a piece of expensive equipment they do not want you to run off with or strip for parts. It's not crazy to do a credit check, much as you'd do a credit check to get a car lease.

And yes, she will need to unfreeze her credit every time someone wants to check her credit score.
posted by potrzebie at 4:54 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]

This happened to me back in 2007 - but with Comcast instead of DirecTV. I had locked down my credit, and when trying to get Comcast service for a new place, they said they couldn't see my credit so would charge me $500 for a deposit on the cable box. I immediately canceled service and, yes, hilarious, ordered DirecTV.

My understanding is they do a soft pull just to make sure you're not going to order service and abscond with the equipment without paying anything.
posted by General Malaise at 4:55 PM on February 17

Note, since you said you understand very little about this: a soft pull is just a request to the agencies "does this person have okay credit" whereas a hard pull is "tell me everything about this person's credit history," which you would get if you applied for a credit card or mortgage.
posted by General Malaise at 4:57 PM on February 17

Response by poster: Ok this is all very clear and helpful. I didn’t think credit scores were so tightly controlled, I mean you can request your own for free and I think my bank sends me mine periodically. Very glad to know this is probably not some elaborate scam.
Also good to know the soft pull vs hard pull!
posted by Vatnesine at 7:44 PM on February 17