Class Action Lawsuit Claims Aven Opened HELOC Account, Accessed Consumer Credit Reports Without Consent

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A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Aven Financial, Inc. of illegally obtaining consumers’ credit reports without authorization.

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The 15-page lawsuit was filed by a California consumer who claims Aven initiated a hard inquiry on their credit report after the company opened a home equity line of credit (HELOC) in their name without consent.

Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a consumer’s credit report may only be accessed with his or her written consent, or for certain “permissible purposes,” including in connection with credit transactions involving “the extension of credit to, or review or collection of an account of, the consumer,” the case relays.

At no point did the plaintiff apply for Aven’s home equity-backed credit card or authorize the defendant to access their credit reports, the complaint contends.

“[Aven’s] conduct demonstrates an intrusion of highly personal information in violation of the FCRA,” the filing alleges.

According to the suit, the plaintiff uses the defendant’s mobile app, Aven Advisor: Credit Check App, which offers a weekly Starbucks gift card for users who maintain a credit score above 800. Within minutes after the consumer attempted to redeem the gift card in February 2025, they received an alert from Experian of a new hard inquiry on their credit report, the case shares.

The lawsuit claims Aven and its issuing bank, Coastal Community Bank, were identified as being behind the hard credit inquiry, and the plaintiff says they subsequently received an email from the defendant stating that their new card would be delivered within a few days.

Per the case, an Aven customer service representative later explained to the plaintiff that a “technical bug” on the company’s app had caused the Starbucks rewards link to redirect them to an “offer acceptance” page. The representative said that the plaintiff had been pre-qualified for a HELOC, and selecting the Starbucks rewards link automatically triggered their acceptance, the Aven lawsuit alleges.

“By illegally accessing Plaintiff’s highly personal information, [Aven] included an additional hard inquiry on Plaintiff’s credit report[,] which negatively affected Plaintiff’s credit score[,] causing it to decrease,” the complaint says, claiming that the consumer consequently lost opportunities to receive and accept offers of credit.

The lawsuit looks to represent all individuals whose credit reports were furnished to Aven Financial without authorization and unrelated to any transaction involving the extension of credit to that person within the past two years.

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