Credit bureaus once freely sold homebuyer data to strangers — a 2026 federal law now limits who can access it
A credit check is the gateway to a home loan. Until March, it was also a starting gun for calls and texts from lenders the borrower had never contacted, driven by a data practice known as a mortgage trigger lead.
When a borrower applies for a home loan, their credit report becomes an alert that bureaus sell to competing lenders — along with contact information — without the borrower's consent.
Will Colvin, acting director at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, DC, described the issue in findings published in October.
"While you're anxiously at home waiting to see if you can afford your dream house," he said, "your information is, unbeknownst to you, being sold off to other lenders and brokers."
How the new trigger lead law works
The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act (HPPA), signed by President Donald Trump on September 5, 2025, and effective March 5, 2026, amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to restrict who can access trigger lead data.
Credit bureaus may now only sell that information to lenders with a preexisting relationship with the borrower, such as the current bank or loan servicer, unless the consumer explicitly opts in.
"Congress passed a new law called the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act, which limits who credit bureaus can sell these mortgage trigger leads to," Colvin said.
"Credit bureaus can only sell this information to lenders that have an existing relationship with the home buyer."
The issue had long divided the broker channel. In a previous Mortgage Professional America interview on how trigger leads divided the mortgage broker community, Andrew Leavitt, vice president of West Coast Mortgage Group in Nevada, said the practice invited misuse.
"There's a lot of unscrupulous activity that's done with trigger leads," Leavitt said, describing how bad actors impersonated borrowers' original loan officers.
The GAO found that some homebuyers received texts advertising low rates that were "quickly jacked up higher" once they followed up.
Others received deceptive messages from parties claiming to work with their original lender.
"This wide sale of homebuyers' personal information certainly raises privacy concerns," Colvin said, "because all this is being done without the homebuyers' actual consent."
How much did trigger leads actually matter?
Despite the frustration, the GAO found trigger leads had minimal impact on borrower choices.
At most, just 3.5% of homebuyers obtained a mortgage from a trigger lead offer, per a large national survey the agency analyzed.
Homebuyers who shop around can save upwards of $100 a month. However, Colvin noted, "most homebuyers just tune them out entirely."
Colvin's summary was direct: "The days of homebuyers being bombarded with endless calls and texts from lenders are hopefully over because Congress has stepped in and taken action."
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