Call from Portfolio Recoveries on an OLD ACCOUNT - Worry or NOT?

[esmer0924]

I just received a call from Portfolio Recovers regarding an account in 2003.  I told the lady I didn't owe the item and that it wasn't on my credit report any longer and the original creditor was who she needed to talk to.  She told me that if I ever try to buy a house that the lenders would frown upon me having an inquiry from their office.  Should I worry about this or not? 

[DeadSpider]

Sounds like a scam to get old $$ and passed statute of limitations.

[john398]

they may have bought the debt from the original lender however it does sound like a threat and I would not pay, the inquiry will go away besides I have never heard of not getting a loan based on 1 inquiry

[romey050500]

wouldn't this be a soft pull?

[RyVision]

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@john398 wrote:

they may have bought the debt from the original lender however it does sound like a threat and I would not pay, the inquiry will go away besides I have never heard of not getting a loan based on 1 inquiry

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IT WON'T BE JUST ONE INQUIRY!!  

They'll HP your CRs repeatedly unless  you freeze them,  whether the debt is yours or not!  Yeah, it's against the law (you have no business relationship with them), but they feel the risk is worth the accounts they've managed to blackmail people into paying.

FREEZE your accounts now and if  you see an INQ by them, contact your states attorney generals office about it. 

This is common practice for them and they'll continue until enough people complain. 

[RyVision]

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@romey050500 wrote:

wouldn't this be a soft pull?

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NOPE!

[esmer0924]

How do I put a freeze on my reports?

[tinuviel]

I'm going to move this to Rebuilding Your Credit; you should find additional members on that forum that have experience dealing with this sort of issue. Best wishes.

[esmer0924]

Thanks, I thought that is where I put it

[RobertEG]

If the debt is legit and the debt collector has legitimate collection authority, such as by purchase of the debt, they can continue collection activity, including making inquiries for the consumer's credit report.  Collection on a debt is a permissible purpose for making inquiry for a consumer credit report under FCRA 604, and that permissible purpose does not expire at any statutory time.

Whether to worry about an old collection that has passed both your state statute of limitations and its credit report exclusion period is a matter of its potential future impact.

I would never summarily advise not to pay.

While credit report exclusion will shield knowledge of the bad debt from future creditors by a simple pull of your credit report, it still exists, and could be discovered by other means, such as a simple inquiry on their part as to whether you have any old, unpaid debt.

You take your chances when choosing to rely upon credit report exclusion as means to prevent knowledge of delinquent debt.