Collection Agency soft pulled credit report -- should I do anything?

[19eighty5]

The title says it all. I pulled my annual credit report a few days ago and noticed that a collection agency soft pulled my Experian report towards the end of November. Two questions: 1) should I be concerned and 2) should I proactively contact the company to see why they pulled my report?

The CA is CONVERGENT OUTSOURCING (sorry for all caps, copy/paste)

[Brooklyn2018]

The soft pull does not hurt your scores at all and only YOU can see those soft pulls(no other creditors) The only concern you should have is the CA possibly reporting the collection?

Do you know you have possible unpaid accounts?

If so, before doing anything(as far as calling and/or paying) send a DV(Debt Validation) letter to the CA. There should be an address listed on your CR’s. Be sure and send your DV letter CMRRR.

[RobertEG]

Once a debt collector has obtained collection authority on a debt, either by assignment of authority from another or by their purchase of the debt, they obtain permissible purpose to pull your credit report under FCRA 604.

Thus, they have notified the CRA that they have authority to collect on a debt that is asserted to be yours, and are doing some preliminary evaluation of your credit standing, and thus likely ability to pay should they initiate communication with you regarding payment of the debt.

Yes, that is reason for concern.

A debt collector can choose to report a collection to the CRAs prior to any initial communication with you, and thus you could see it appear as an actual collection in your credit report at any time.

You could send a DV request now, but since the debt collector has not yet initiated communication with you, a DV at this point would not be timely, and thus would not impose any cease collection bar, including blocking their ability to report to a CRA without first having sent validation.  They could simply choose to ignore any DV request until they have first initiated communication with you.  See FDCPA 809.

You can, if you wish to avoid any such reporting, choose to intitiate your own communication with them and determine what the debt is, and if you recognize the debt, make a pay for not reporting offer.

Your call at this point......