Debt Collectors doing soft pulls on credit reports. Is it legal?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys, tell me if there is something I can do about this.  In 2001 a huge earth shattering event happened in my life and I stopped paying on a credit card.  That was 13 years ago.  I think it was about $1,000.  About 3 months ago I decided to look at my credit after seeing non stop creditkarma commericals.  It was 773.   I now have 5 new credit cards.  I just got my complete credit report from 3 bureaus and see a Portfolio Recovery company is soft pulling my credit report.  They are nasty nasty debt collectors.  Is it legal for them to try and get onto my current credit file just to destroy me after 13 years?  Can I get it off of my credit report since it's a soft pull where they inquired about my credit?  I will bust some a** if they keep up this aggressive strategy.

[pipeguy]

Based on your handle, I'll assume you live in SC - that being the case the SOL for just about all debts is 3 years meaning they can't sue you and win (they can try but it'll get tossed if you prove the debt is 10 years old).

Do current creditors and debt collectors soft pull and "watch you" yup, they sure do because the CB's let them and actually sell them the service - doesn't mean anything as far as your credit status today - might come up in a mortgage (CB's notify them if you apply), so I wouldn't worry about it.

[RobertEG]

You are fortunate it is only a soft pull.

Debt collectors have permissible purpose, as long as they have active collection authority, to pull a consumer's credit report for purpose of collection on a debt.

FCRA 604(a)(3)(A).

They can code the inquiry as hard.

[Imperfectfuture]

Something interesting happened on the way to the forum.

In 2013, PRS and Midland we're coded as hard on several reports.

They disappeared, and showed up as soft pulls.

Methinks the laws have changed, but I didn't care enough to search for it (they are off all reports except eq as of now).

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure they do that to check your current employer information and to see if you're in a good position to settle. Of course, if those bastards have a default judgment against you, the SOL is much longer so beware about updating your employer info on your CRs lest they garnish your paycheck. 

[kjel]

Congratulations! Just kidding, it means that they think you are collectable now. Don't be surprised if they send you a settlement offer, just make sure you keep copies of your reports as time goes on so if they try and report you are covered.

[-NewGuy-]

Keep in mind that the authority to collect and the authority to report are two completely different things. For the most part, they can report on your credit for 7 years + 180 days from the DoFD. However, assuming that they have the authority to collect, they can attempt to do so until the debt is satisfied. It does not mean that they can't attempt to collect on the debt simply because they can't report on it anymore.

[Anonymous]

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@-NewGuy- wrote:

Keep in mind that the authority to collect and the authority to report are two completely different things. For the most part, they can report on your credit for 7 years + 180 days from the DoFD. However, assuming that they have the authority to collect, they can attempt to do so until the debt is satisfied. It does not mean that they can't attempt to collect on the debt simply because they can't report on it anymore.

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I would note, however that if it is beyond SOL and they do contact you, a C&D letter is all you need to send them, CMRRR of course.