Collection company pulled my credit after discharge

[SadPanda]

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if this should go under "Collections" or "Rebuilding Credit," but since this is an "After the Discharge" issue, I decided to put it here. My BK was discharged in November, but just a few days ago, a hard inquiry from a collection company showed up on my TransUnion report. (There is also a hard inquiry from this same company from September of 2011, so that should be dropping off my TransUnion report in a few months.) They had at least one of my credit card debts before I filed for BK. They were listed on the creditor matrix of my BK petition and I haven't received any letters or phone calls from them since I filed my BK last August. I haven't looked at my other credit reports in the last week, so I don't know if they pulled my other credit reports recently as well.

Does anyone know why a collection company would suddenly do a hard pull on my report, months after my bankruptcy was discharged? Could they have mixed me up with someone else? I know I don't have any debts that they could've bought from another company or anything like that.

I believe this hard inquiry is a violation of the FCRA, because there's no permissible purpose – is this correct? I just got a new credit card a few months ago and I wouldn't want them seeing a collection agency's inquiry, getting nervous and closing my card. I'm not sure what the likelihood of that is, but it's just one reason why I want this inquiry removed.

How can I get the inquiry removed and stop this from happening again? Should I try calling the collection agency? If I can't get the inquiry removed, I want to at least prevent them from putting another hard inquiry on my credit report(s).

I've read that everything should be done in writing, but I had good luck getting something changed on my Equifax report a month or two ago. One of my credit cards was reporting that it was 120 days past due (or something along those lines), so I disputed it using Equifax's online disputing system, and it was changed to "Included in Bankruptcy" on my report. I will check again at some point to make sure it doesn't change back to 120 days past due.

Thanks for any help!

[derp]

I wish I could answer you. I came here to ask the same thing. My BK was discharged in December '12, and I got a hard inquiry from Stellar Recover on May 1. According to Credit Karma, this knocked my score back by 9 points. And I was doing so well.

Stellar Recovery filed a lawsuit against me last June, which was the catalyst that finally got me to file after 2 years of procrastinating.

[justbroke]

I would send demand letters which demand a response that the creditor acknowledge that they have violated the permanent discharge injunction and that they will stop attempting to collect the debt by any means; which includes running credit checks. Also mention the FCRA since they had NO reason to run your credit!

Maybe they'll comply and stop. Maybe they won't. It would be interesting to see if they keep bothering you and you drag them into the bankruptcy court for a stay violation.

[SadPanda]

I ended up emailing them (Stellar Recovery), and I received a reply. The representative from the company said that it was a mistake by TransUnion and that the error occurred on thousands of people's credit reports. He also said that TransUnion will remove the inquiries from these credit reports and that it could take 20 to 25 days. Hopefully, what he said was true and these inquiries will be deleted!

[bcss]

It wasn't a mistake by Transunion, it was their mistake. I would follow up with a letter.

[SadPanda]

Update: I didn't end up sending a letter, since I wanted to wait and see if the inquiry would be removed from my report first. According to my Credit Karma, the Stellar Recovery inquiry was removed from my credit report. (I didn't check my actual TransUnion report yet, but I assume it was removed from TransUnion if Credit Karma says it was removed from my report.)

[IBroke]

He also said that TransUnion will remove the inquiries from these credit reports and that it could take 20 to 25 days.

It will be interesting to see how that turns out. The last time I disputed unauthorized inquiries on my report with a credit reporting agency two years ago, I used their online system where you could check a box next to the inquiry in question to start the 30-day investigation. Well, you will never guess what the outcome of that "investigation" was:

"Inquiries in question stay on file because they are a "matter of record" of all companies that have accessed your credit file."

Oh, really?

I got this message from Equifax.

See, I never claim to be the smartest guy on the planet - but why on earth are they "accepting" disputes on items they can't remove/correct in the first place?

It's like having the choice between A and B with B not being an option. Yeah, right...

[SadPanda]

It will be interesting to see how that turns out.

I'm not sure if you saw my last post, but they did end up removing the inquiry. I didn't dispute it, but I contacted the collection agency via email and they said it was a mistake by TransUnion. I had disputed something a while back on my Equifax report using their online system and it was resolved, but it wasn't an issue with an inquiry.

It seems like TransUnion is the report that's pulled most often, so I'm most concerned about that report. I remember when I was denied for a credit card many years ago and the info in the rejection letter mentioned TransUnion, and I had never even heard of them before that. Now it seems like almost everyone pulls TransUnion (not just for me, but when I look at things like the credit pulls database).

[Pjmax]

I wish I was only battling an inquiry. I checked my USAA monitoring yesterday, and see my Experian score tanked. There is a new collection from someone named Fairway. I've never heard of Fairway, and the amount and account number I can't tie to anything. It's either someone elses or a rehash of one of my BK accounts. (Filed 8/29/12, DCd 11/29/12) I disputed online with Experian, and found emails for executives of Fairway and sent off some very stern demanding emails. I will start calling Monday.

Nothing like seeing that kind of bad news on a Sat. when you can't do much other than pout about it all weekend. Don't stop monitoring your credit reports, even when you think it's safe.

[IBroke]

I'm not sure if you saw my last post, but they did end up removing the inquiry. I didn't dispute it, but I contacted the collection agency via email and they said it was a mistake by TransUnion. I had disputed something a while back on my Equifax report using their online system and it was resolved, but it wasn't an issue with an inquiry.

Ah, good that it worked out.

If it was indeed an error by TU, that would also explain why it was removed.