topic Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry? in General Credit Topics

What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

credit99 — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:26:43 GMT

Hello Everyone! I have learned so many new things here and all your posts have been extremely helpful to me. Quick question. Is it legal for a hospital to do a soft pull of your credit report if you slipped on oil in their cafeteria and were injured? This is really bothering me. My son was having surgery at Duke University Medical Center and I slipped in the cafeteria on oil that had spilled and had not been cleaned up. I ended up dislocating my knee and tearing ligaments. A security officer came and collected all my info (including my SSN#) and I was in so much pain I gave it to him. They then rolled me off to the emergency room for treatment. Needless to say I paid for the emergency service I received from them but I am very unhappy they had the nerve to pull my credit report. Is this normal?

Message Edited by credit99 on 06-13-2008 07:26 PM

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

aftermath — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:50:04 GMT

They were probably preparing to get sued by you. They most likely checked your credit to get a feel for who you are (lots of lates = irresponsible), and use a bad credit report to use against you in court to discredit your testimony. Just my theory.

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

credit99 — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:28:58 GMT

Hi - Thanks for your reply. My credit is pretty decent and I don't have any lates. I did not sue them and I paid them everything I owed for my emergency room visit and my son's surgery. So does this mean they had a permissable purpose to pull it as I certainly didn't authorize them to do so?

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:32:44 GMT

credit99 -

Did they do a pull before or after you paid your bill?

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

credit99 — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:09:15 GMT

Before I paid the bills. They are slow to bill there. Didn't get the bills until January. They pulled it on the day after I was injured.

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:15:16 GMT

It certainly sounds unusual. I am not sure if it is legal, but I presume because they did provide a service without immediate payment that they can get away with it. Since it is only a soft it is not something to dispute, but I do think it was nerve-y on their part. I am sorry you had that happen to you. You could call in and ask for an explanation - especially considering they are lucky you didn't sue.

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:47:55 GMT

Soft pulls do not count against you at all.

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

aftermath — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:21:10 GMT

@credit99 wrote:
Hi - Thanks for your reply. My credit is pretty decent and I don't have any lates. I did not sue them and I paid them everything I owed for my emergency room visit and my son's surgery. So does this mean they had a permissable purpose to pull it as I certainly didn't authorize them to do so?

You should really consider contacting an attorney and sue them. If you slipped and fell on a spill on their premises and sustained injuries, they are liable to cover all costs of injuries occurred due to the mishap.

Hey you never know, maybe you can settle outside of court, and even have them cover the costs for your sons surgery.

Flex your legal rights.

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:29:20 GMT

There is no PP for soft pulls...in that case...OPT OUT...and they should not be able to do this...now if it was a hard pull...then you should worry...

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

BungalowMo — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:26:31 GMT

Dang!! If that happened to me & they had the nerve to send ME the bill...I'd have been on their doorstep letting them know what's ahead if they didn't make that bill disappear!

That takes BRASS ones...for sure!

If someone was injured on MY property, I'm liable for their medical bills...that's why I have homeowners Ins. You are injured on their property...it's their place to pay. No matter where you live.

*I am now climbing down from my soapbox.....

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:56:46 GMT

I don't think that they had permissible purpose. You weren't seeking credit, you weren't an established customer, and they sure weren't deciding whether to extend you credit.

I think that it's a violation of your privacy rights and good for $1000 (the fine for accessing your credit reports without PP.) But I'm sure that they would argue against this. So I suppose it's up to you whether to pursue it.

And certainly they should never had billed you in the first place. This is why businesses, including hospitals, carry liability insurance.

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:30:10 GMT

It was a soft pull...not a hard pull...

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

haulingthescoreup — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:00:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It was a soft pull...not a hard pull...

There is no difference between soft and hard pulls when it comes to violations of PP. The injury is not whether you get an inq on your reports (which would not be good), but the fact that they accessed your credit records without your permission and without any legitimate excuse.

You'll see posts here saying oh well, it was a soft, so I guess that there's nothing I can do, but it's a privacy issue, not a credit issue.

It would be like someone accessing your medical records without your permission. Even if they didn't use the information to jack up your health insurance rates, or deny you coverage or something, the point is that they had no business snooping around in the first place. (Hope that makes sense...)

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:20:04 GMT

I would agree that you should talk to an attorney about your rights, both regarding the fall and the credit pull. I don't think a hospital should pull your CR without providing a service first.

But I do have a question: did anyone from the hospital contact you regarding your fall and what they would or could do about it?

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:00:17 GMT

haulingthescoreup wrote:

There is no difference between soft and hard pulls when it comes to violations of PP. The injury is not whether you get an inq on your reports (which would not be good), but the fact that they accessed your credit records without your permission and without any legitimate excuse.

Agree 100%! The requirements in the FCRA that distinguish between hard and soft pulls are independent of the requirements for PP. ALL pulls require PP, hard and soft alike.

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

credit99 — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:41:43 GMT

Hello Everyone. Thanks for all of your responses. No, nobody from the hospital ever contacted me about my fall. My health insurance ended up covering it and I think I had to pay $45 out of pocket (which annoyed me) but then I figured it would be too much aggravation to argue with the billing reps over it. But then it really irked me when I saw them nosing around my credit the day after the fall. My son and I are were out in North Carolina from California for his second surgery and then when I fell I ended up on crutches so we were both the pair.

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:01:21 GMT

Don't sue the hospital, but do file a claim with their Insurance Carrier immediately!!!! At the very least you will get any out of pocket expenses paid back.

Most importantly, if your health insurance finds out a 3rd party is possibly liable for the $$ they paid out and you didn't tell them they can deny the claim and send you a bill. Make sure you check your Explanation of Benefits from your Insurance company to make sure they pay out!

As far as them looking at your credit reports... unless there is a small disclaimer in the forms you signed stating they might do this they can not.

Message Edited by 1111mel on 06-14-2008 09:01 PM

Re: What constitutes permissable purpose for a soft inquiry?

haulingthescoreup — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 12:50:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

....Most importantly, if your health insurance finds out a 3rd party is possibly liable for the $$ they paid out and you didn't tell them they can deny the claim and send you a bill. Make sure you check your Explanation of Benefits from your Insurance company to make sure they pay out!

Good point, I hadn't thought of that! Two of our kids played soccer, and we have visited innumerable ER's around the southeast. We always got a form from our insurance company asking us to call and verify that another party wasn't liable and going to pay. Well, maybe the coach that set three players on my daughter to take her down as she headed a ball, resulting in her 4th concussion, was probably liable, but we weren't going after him, although DH had to be restrained.

Any accident resulting in injury is coded with two codes: one describing the injury (sprained knee, broken wrist, etc.) and a second code called an E-code, describing the external cause of the injury (slipping, collision in sports, hit by returning space vehicle. Yes, there is an E-code for this.) The presence of an injury code and especially of an E-code will generally trigger one of these forms from your insurance company, hoping that they don't have to pay. For the life of me, I can't remember the exact term for this, but we've gotten our share over the years.