5/23/2010 7:27 PM (PST)

Not knowing what exact language the company used that you are referring to my response would be "yes, they can". Consumer reports may be requested for legitimate business needs or any business transaction initiated by the consumer.

And yes, companies can concoct their own variations of "risk based pricing" and "accelerate" payments if they deem you risky enough, and unfortunately many of us are deemed risky due to errors of many types that occur in our credit reports.

So, what you should do is exercise your right to obtain a free annual credit report from each credit bureau (biannually in some states) and become empowered as best you can with managing what's on those reports and educating the companies you do business with as to why they are in error in considering you a credit risk.

All of us have legal rights to keep inaccurate and stale info off of our credit reports - and again, these may contain LOTS of errors. But it takes work, letter writing, and educating ourselves on how to deal with credit bureaus. Here are some BBB articles on the subject:

What You Should Know About Your Credit Report
http://www.la.bbb.org/GIReport.aspx?DocumentID=165

Credit Repair
http://www.la.bbb.org/GIReport.aspx?DocumentID=79