Can a CA soft pull my reports?

[beanie7132]

Can a collection agency (NCO) soft pull me? EVERY single month since January (that I know of) without having a collection posted on any of my reports? I dont understand why they would do this and I am worried that they will popup the second I start shopping for a car loan - as a new collection.

My last collection is about to be removed from TU following a PFD, leaving me with 2 charge offs that fall off by November. Everything that remains after that are satisfactory accounts with the exception of a closed car loan with 10 thirty day lates.

What the heck is the deal with NCO? I do not know of anything they could be trying to collect for - one of the old charge offs maybe.... but CRTP is almost up with those. Medical, possibly, but when I contacted the only hospital I could have bills with they had two listed for me and both are assigned to a different CA.

how do I keep them from soft pulling me? I am opted out, but do I need to put a freeze on my reports? Would that help, or hurt?

[guiness56]

If they have a collection of yours, yes they can.  They may not be reporting because it is too old to report.

A freeze or opting out will not keep them from pulling your report if they have permissible purpose.  At this point, send them a DV letter to find out what they are pulling for.

[beanie7132]

If I send them a DV - and the collection is not too old to report, will the DV make them more inclined to actually report?

I am sure they have seen the disappearance of 4 collections and the two new lines of credit.....

Ahhh.... I think I figured it out. I dug out some old reports - on Experian and Equifax reports I pulled in 2011 they have a collection posted for a cable bill it seems..... DOFD has to be from early 2007. So CRTP hasnt reached yet, however, that collection is no longer on any report or any other and I have no clue why as I never disputed. And they have been soft pulling TU as far back as August 2012 every month.

I am not sure how to proceed now..... I am going to say CRTP is up somewhere around March 2014. Should I contact the OC and see if I can arrange payment with them? Would that be the best route and keep NCO from reporting? The collection is for about $150.00.

[guiness56]

You can contact the OC and ask them who the account is with and if you pay them will they recall the debt.  Then the CA has no collection authority and cannot report.

A timely DV will keep them from reporting until they validate.  In your case it would be timely since they never sent a dunning notice.  If they validated they could report.

I would start with the OC.

[beanie7132]

Thank you! I am going to start with the OC.

[RobertEG]

There seems to be a continuing debate over whether termination of collection authorty by an OC imposes a bar against a debt collector from reporting their collection, or requires them to delete their prior reporting.

My postion is that there is no statutory or regulatory prohibition against a debt collector reporting their collection after their authority has been terminated.

The fact of their having had prior authority remains, and there is no requirement that they can only report that fact while their authoriity is still in force, or that they cannot report it after termination of their authority.  The requirement is that, if they report, they must accurately include the status of the amount under their collection as being $0.

If they have previously reported, and their authority is teminated, they are required to timely update their reporting to reflect the amount under their collection is now $0.

As for inquires, the criteria for permissible purpose is only that, at the time of the inquiry, they have legitimate collection authority.

There is no requiement that they must have reported their collection to the CRA in order to have permissible purpose.

Upon satisfaction of the debt, their permissible purpose terminates.

[guiness56]

Except that the Credit Reporting Guide says they cannot.  That is regulatory.

I have NEVER seen anything in writing saying they have to report 0 and closed.

[beanie7132]

Should I leave it alone? I do not want to wake a sleeping giant, and I sure do not want it reported since I will have ZERO collections on my TU report in a few days.

A new collection would seriously ruin everything I have accomplished in the past few months.

If I pay the OC - then, based on your post above, NCO can still report just with a zero balance - technically defeating the purpose of me even contacting or paying the OC. And I also have no leverage to negotiate a PFD with the CA either.

If I DV NCO - then I alert them that I know they are 'spying' on my report. Giving them a reason to report the collection.

If I do nothing......... then there is no telling what will happen.

Just trying to find the safest way out of this.

The debt is mine. I am not debating that. From what I can tell it is from direct tv service in 2007 that was disconnected and never paid because the thing never worked and we were tired of arguing with direct tv. We recevied an early term bill for about 170ish and I made a $30 payment with the intention of paying it off. But then medical issues occured so the bills, this one included, were put on the back burner. (we actually have direct tv now under my husbands name and have had excellant service with them over the past two years).

[guiness56]

If it is a debt still within the reporting time then they can put it on your report at any time.

A DV or any other type of communications could prompt them to do that.  I would leave it alone and deal with it if and when it did report.