Can a collection agency pull your report forever?

BobbyInCO · ‎01-22-2023

So many years ago I had an identity theft problem regarding a member of my family opening accounts in my name/SSN. A few of them went to collections and at the time I didn't check my reports regularly or care. As time went on, they went to collections and were reassigned to Portfolio Recovery Associates - they are the scum of the scum, IMHO. Time marched on and they've long since either been settled (I reluctantly paid a few) or fallen off my report due to age.

Now that my credit is back to the low 800s, I pay much more attention to the details. It bothers me that several times every single month Portfolio Recovery soft pulls my report, sometimes two or three days in a row. Get outta my business, you! Maybe they think it's permissibable purpose since they have a supposed debt with me, but it's not been validated by any court or by supporting docs, at least not with me. But, if they sent any initial debt demand letters years ago they likely got a no-response.

How long can they pull my private information from my report? Forever since they think it's legit? I'm toying with sending them a stop letter, but not sure if that will open a new can of worms and validate anything or get them to try to pursue me for old bad debt that wasn't mine, but tied to me.

Brian_Earl_Spilner · ‎01-22-2023

In general debt terms, the only way debt vanishes is if it's paid, forgiven, or you include it in bankruptcy. While there are time limits on reporting it to the bureaus and pursuing litigation, there is no expiration on debt. A debt collector can take actions to collect for the rest of your life or until they sell it. Then the next company tries to collect.

Your situation is a little different due to fraud. If you can provide proof of fraud, you can make them stop. But the important question is, did you press charges on your family member? If not, it's implied permissable use and debt collectors will continue to try and collect on it because it appears to be legit.

In regards to pulling your credit, not sure why pra would do it, unless they're looking to take ownership of any new defaults. A company with low to no ethical standards, on the other hand, will wait until you're trying to buy a car or home and intentionally report it even if they can't because it puts you in a very bad position. The process to remove it takes time and they're trying to force a payment.

Remedios · ‎01-22-2023

Debt is "legit" unless you followed procedure for identity theft.

What that means is, while they may not longer be able to sue you or report collection accounts, debt doesn't disappear when SOL and/or reporting period expire.

In any case, you cannot compel them to stop soft pulls.

I'm going to go on a limb and assume you didn't file police report, FTC report etc, because if you did, CRAs would have put blocks on original accounts and resultant collection accounts.

They are just soft pulls and they will move on eventually.

BobbyInCO · ‎01-22-2023

No, I didn't press charges. So difficult when it's a family member - you know they did you wrong but you still don't want them on the wrong end of the law. Now if it happened today, I'd rethink that because being "soft" allowed them to do it to other family members as well.

But I guess I get stuck at the validation of debt. If they haven't produced proof of debt then it's just their word that it's a legit debt. Maybe I screwed that years ago when I didn't respond or maybe didn't receive the initial debt notices. I haven't received any contact from them at all in about 7-8 years. The last time I did was a nasty phone call where they threatened to sue me if I didn't pay on the phone right then (they didn't) and I asked for proof of the debt and said it was not mine. All they said was they sent it already and don't need to waste their time sending it again just because I wanted to be a deadbeat and not pay. They are indeed scum. I know people legitimately don't pay and they have the hard job of trying to get it, but their tactics are a bit scuzzy.

Ex-Inferis · ‎01-22-2023

PR keeps sending me settlement letters for CO from 2013

7774x · ‎01-23-2023

@BobbyInCO wrote:
So many years ago I had an identity theft problem regarding a member of my family opening accounts in my name/SSN. A few of them went to collections and at the time I didn't check my reports regularly or care. As time went on, they went to collections and were reassigned to Portfolio Recovery Associates - they are the scum of the scum, IMHO. Time marched on and they've long since either been settled (I reluctantly paid a few) or fallen off my report due to age.

Now that my credit is back to the low 800s, I pay much more attention to the details. It bothers me that several times every single month Portfolio Recovery soft pulls my report, sometimes two or three days in a row. Get outta my business, you! Maybe they think it's permissibable purpose since they have a supposed debt with me, but it's not been validated by any court or by supporting docs, at least not with me. But, if they sent any initial debt demand letters years ago they likely got a no-response.

How long can they pull my private information from my report? Forever since they think it's legit? I'm toying with sending them a stop letter, but not sure if that will open a new can of worms and validate anything or get them to try to pursue me for old bad debt that wasn't mine, but tied to me.

They can call you forever ..doesn't mean you answer them, just ignore them ...use your caller ID .. Chase , discover offer free credit monitoring...for free... if you have their cards,, Chase montiors the dark web too for info on you .. use these services.

AyaMai · ‎01-31-2023

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
In general debt terms, the only way debt vanishes is if it's paid, forgiven, or you include it in bankruptcy. While there are time limits on reporting it to the bureaus and pursuing litigation, there is no expiration on debt. A debt collector can take actions to collect for the rest of your life or until they sell it. Then the next company tries to collect.

Your situation is a little different due to fraud. If you can provide proof of fraud, you can make them stop. But the important question is, did you press charges on your family member? If not, it's implied permissable use and debt collectors will continue to try and collect on it because it appears to be legit.

In regards to pulling your credit, not sure why pra would do it, unless they're looking to take ownership of any new defaults. A company with low to no ethical standards, on the other hand, will wait until you're trying to buy a car or home and intentionally report it even if they can't because it puts you in a very bad position. The process to remove it takes time and they're trying to force a payment.

@7774x They can call you forever ..doesn't mean you answer them, just ignore them ...use your caller ID .. Chase , discover offer free credit monitoring...for free... if you have their cards,, Chase montiors the dark web too for info on you .. use these services.

My score dropped 66 points on a single day due to a collection of a debt thinking it has far passed 7 years limit & had 4 months left for a late payment to be dropped, called Experian, the representitive told me as if they were waiting to nail you, since you started obtaining credit, told me the exact date it will dropped. After 8 months suddenly it was removed, my score shot up again 35 points higher than pre collection score. The odd part the same collection agency continues calling me, never gives up. I never answer a call not on my contact list. The part what puzzles me why my collection was deleted from before the removal date & receiving phone calls.

ThomasJNewton · ‎02-02-2023

@BobbyInCO wrote:

But I guess I get stuck at the validation of debt. If they haven't produced proof of debt then it's just their word that it's a legit debt. Maybe I screwed that years ago when I didn't respond or maybe didn't receive the initial debt notices. I haven't received any contact from them at all in about 7-8 years.

The process is simply that they say it is a valid debt and it is validated to the Credit Reporting Agencies. If they were to try to sue you, they would have to prove the debt was valid in court, but for the reporting agencies, their statement is good enough.

Filing criminal charges is not needed for the debt to not be collectible against you, it would just have made it easier for you dispute it now. They need to prove you incurred the debt for them to collect it from you, you do not need to prove you did not do so.