I've always read that the credit reporting bureaus sell your data.  I have reason to believe that this is true.

A lady from Cranbrook Mortgage called saying that Equifax told her I was looking to refinance.  I said this wasn't true.  She then asked what rate I was paying on my mortgage.  After I answered, she asked if I wanted to do home improvements or take out any equity.  I said no and she politely said thank you and that was the end of the call.

So if I didn't tell Equifax that I wanted to refinance how did this mortgage company get my phone number?  My guess is that the mortgage company is looking for clients.  They contacted Equifax for a list of consumers with mortgage balances of a certain amount in a certain geographic area.  Voila. My name and number appears.

Interesting facts
I did call one of my creditors last week and ask for a lower rate on a HELOC based on Chase's advertised rate of 4.99% and Schwab's advertised rate of prime minus 1%.  The creditor was unable and/or unwilling to change the rate.

I did call Schwab to initiate the process for a lower rate and have received e-mail to document the process.

Can it also be that my ISP is selling my browsing history to third parties?  Did my ISP release financial websites I visited and surmise that I might be interested in paying lower rates for credit?

Hmmm...