Concord man sues Carvana for allegedly running credit months after purchase

CONCORD, N.C. — A Concord man is suing Carvana after he says the car dealership ran his credit several times months after he purchased a vehicle from the company.

Art Hill told Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke that he purchased a BMW from Carvana in 2019.

“It was a pretty seamless process,” he said.

Hill checks his credit report regularly and said he noticed “a bunch of entries for Carvana.”

According to Hill, Carvana ran his credit three times eight months after he bought the car and then two more times four months later.

“I was pretty shocked,” he said.

Hill checked into it and found this on the company’s website:

“By clicking ‘GET MY FINANCING TERMS’ I give Carvana written consent to obtain, now and periodically, consumer credit reports (Reports) about me from consumer reporting agencies to show current and future credit products and services I prequalify for when financing with Carvana. I understand this authorizes Carvana to get multiple Reports, which may appear as an inquiry on my Report, but will not impact my credit score. This authorization will expire when my current account terminates unless I revoke earlier by contacting Carvana at creditoptout@carvana.com.”

Hill said the credit checks did not impact his score, but he contacted Action 9 so that others can be aware.

“I hope this interview will at least help consumers in North Carolina kind of spot these things,” Hill told Stoogenke.

He’s also suing Carvana, hoping the company changes how it handles customers’ private information.

“This is the language that they speak in. This is the only way that they are going to understand, so I just did what I had to do,” he said.

Stoogenke offers this advice to help protect yourself:

• Read the fine print – make sure you know the dealer’s policies.
• Keep a close eye on your credit – all three credit reporting agencies offer a free report each year, so get a free report done. Spread the requests out to cover the whole year for free.
• If you’re dealing with Carvana specifically, you can opt-out of credit checks.

Stoogenke emailed and called Carvana for a response, but did not hear back in time for this report.

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