CA Hard Inquiry..?

[ang123]

I have alerts set up so that if anything on my report changes, I am kept in the loop. This morning I was greeted with a message stating that A medical collection agency has done a hard inquiry on my report. Now, its obvious that I have not applied for a line of credit with them.. do they have the right to do this? Can I dispute this inquiry? I need to get my score as high as I can because we would like to buy a house.. and anything helps!

[pizzadude]

Unless you are absolutely sure that this is a case of mistaken identity, I don't think there is much you can do.   If you are absolutely sure that you don't have outstanding collection items, you could send them a non-PP letter.

Although some people would argue the point, in practice CAs are generally believed to have Permissable Purpose to pull your credit.   However, this action constitutes collection activity, so the CA would be required to send you notification in writing.