Is a debt collector allowed to make a hard inquiry on your credit report?
"According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act: any consumer reporting agency may furnish a consumer report [...] to a person which it has reason to believe [...] intends to use the information in connection with a credit transaction involving the consumer on whom the information is to be furnished and   involving the extension of credit to, or review or collection of an account of, the consumer See p12 (section 604). The usual interpretation of this that I've heard is that a debt collection agency that owns or has been assigned a debt can make hard pulls on your credit report without your consent. This link seems to support that (and references the same part of the act, among others): According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, [...], any business can access your credit history without your permission provided the business has a valid ""permissible purpose."" The FCRA notes that one such permissible purpose is to review your credit information in connection with the collection of a debt. Thus, if you owe money to a debt collector, the debt collector has the legal right to pull and review your credit report. If they haven't been assigned the debt or own it outright, I believe you have a legal right to dispute it. Consult a lawyer if this is actually a situation you face.  Once use for this is if the debt collection agency has trouble locating you; since your credit report normally contains current and past addresses, this is one way to locate you."
"I don't know of a guideline to how often you can ask for an increase. You can ask as often as you like. As for consequences, refer to Is there a downside to asking for a credit increase?, where the consensus is that, aside from a possible (temporary) hard pull on your credit report, there's probably no risk to asking. Depending on your credit score/history, and especially in the current economy, you may get ""no"" as an answer most often. You can try talking to your card's Credit Department or even Customer Retention Department as they may have more leverage. They may say yes or no or that they need to review your account. When you do ask for an increase, I would make sure to ask if there will be a hard pull on your report, if there is any cost or downside to applying, and to make sure that this would be an increase to your current credit line, not a new account." To answer the specific question of whether you can get the bill reduced without hurting your credit, yes, as long as the bill never goes to collections, there's no reason it should ever show up on your credit report. Will they reduce your bill without sending it to collections first? Maybe. All you can do is ask. I've seen my score dip a little bit after every hard pull.  (Admittedly, a fako score.)  You apply for credit or for a credit increase and your score is going to dip. Any check that is not intended to grant credit (either an existing creditor rechecking, or when you check your own credit) has no effect on your score.  Likewise, a check done to screen for a solicitation have no effect as you are not trying to borrow.  (Taking them up on the offer will normally cause a hit, though.) I froze my credit online yesterday.  Last page of process confirmed I had frozen credit and told me to print last page because it has information I will need to unfreeze it.  Page was blank. So I waited. Then I got timed out.  Then I got a page telling me I had not frozen my credit.  I had called a few times yesterday but always got a busy signal.  So, at 5:06 est I called them again. Before patching me through to a live person that asked if I'd be willing to take a short survey after speaking with rep, which I agreed to do.  When my call was transferred I got a message saying they worked nine to five and to call back later.  Then the survey started.  Needless to say, the scores were the lowest possible.  And apparently unfreezing my credit will be problematic.  Yippee! "Use with moderation. Powerful stuff. Your caller could be an offshore scammer too. Summarizing from http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt-validation.shtml: You can dispute the debt, and demand that the collector give you the name and address of the original creditor and show that it isn't past the statute of limitations. If they can't ""validate"" the debt by providing that info, in writing, they must drop it until they can do so. You can sue (though generally not for very much) if they don't. You may have to make this request in writing, so it has a paper trail. A valid verification respond must include: If they don't respond within 30 days, they are in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FDCPA section 809b), and you can send registered mail threatening them with a lawsuit if they don't immediately drop it and remove it from your credit report. They should respond to that within two weeks, and if they don't have darned good evidence will probably cave. If they can prove you do owe the money ... Well, you can hope they aren't licensed to collect in your state; if they aren't you can try to challenge them on that basis. Unlikely to work. If they agree, remember to send a copy of the letter to the credit reporting agencies to make sure it's taken off your record. If this isn't enough to resolve it, you'll probably need to bring suit. That's another long list of steps; I'm going to refer you to the linked site rather than summarize them here since at that point you should get a lawyer involved to make sure it's done promptly." "Assuming I don't need any other new lines of credit, can I get pre-qualified repeatedly (and with different banks) with impunity? Yes, but only for a limited period. FICO says: Hard inquiries are inquiries where a potential lender is reviewing your credit because you've applied for credit with them. These include credit checks when you've applied for an auto loan, mortgage or credit card. Each of these types of credit checks count as a single inquiry. One exception occurs when you are ""rate shopping"". That's a smart thing to do, and your FICO score considers all inquiries within a 45 period for a mortgage, an auto loan or a student loan as a single inquiry. However for your situation, since you won't be getting a loan for several months, getting inquiries more than 45 days apart will each count as a separate inquiry." All three credit bureaus allow you to file a dispute online. Some allow you to upload documentation at the same time, others will ask you to mail it to them. Send them the letter you got from your bank, they will then return to the collection company.  For $300.00 most likely they will not pursue it any further and the credit bureaus will delete the entry from your file. If the collection company want to make a case out of it they will have to view to cost of trying to get a Court Judgment against the value of the amount they are claiming. Almost certainly they will view at not cost effective and your credit rating will return to where it was prior to the negative impact "It won't hurt your credit score, but it may hurt your ChexSystems score. ChexSystems is another consumer reporting agency that doesn't keep track of your debts, but of your bank accounts. Banks (most but not all) check ChexSystems before you open an account to see if you bounce checks, overdraft, make a lot of teller visits, lose ATM cards, etc. They use this to estimate your profitability. Banks aren't allowed to discriminate against a protected class, but ""unprofitable"" is not a protected class. BTW, most banks don't make much money on checking accounts; they view them as ""get-you-in-the-door"" inducements so they can sell you the things they really want to like mortgages and investments." "From what I understand, they basically hold on to your money while you stop paying your debt.  They keep it in an account and negotiate on your behalf. The longer you go without paying, the less the debt collector is willing to take and at some point, they will settle.  So they take the money you've been putting into their ""account"" and pay it down.  Repeat the process for all your accounts. I basically did this, without using a service. I had $17,000 on one card and they bumped the interest rate to 29%, and I had lost my job. I didn't pay it for 7 months.  I just planned on filing bankruptcy.  They finally called me up and said, if you can pay $250 a month, until it's paid off, we will drop the interest to 0% and forgive all your late fees. I did that, and five years later it was paid off. Similar situation happened on my other cards.  It seems once they realize you can't pay, is when they're willing to give you a break.  It'd be nice they just never jacked up your rate to 30% though. So, forget the service, just do it yourself.  Call them up and ask, and if they don't budge, don't pay it. Of course your credit will be shot.  But I'm back in the 700s, so anything is possible over time." I would keep the letter in a file for follow-up, and I would do what you are already planning to do and wait to see what shows up on the credit report. If this does reflect an identity theft attempt, chances are that others will follow, so vigilance is key here. If there is a hard credit check, then you can dispute that on your credit report. If there is not a hard credit check, there is nothing further this credit card company can do to help you anyway. "I was I a similar position as you, and sometimes credit bureaus might be difficult to deal with, especially when high amounts of money are involved. To make the long story short, someone opened a store credit card under my name and made a charge of around 3k. After reporting this to the bureaus, they did not want to remove the account from my credit report citing that the claim was ""frivolous"". After filing a police report, the police officer gave me the phone number for the fraud department of this store credit card, and after they investigated, they removed the account from my credit. I would suggest to do the following: Communicating with Creditors and Debt Collectors You have the right to:  Stop creditors and debt collectors from   reporting fraudulent accounts. After you give them a copy of a valid   identity theft report, they may not report fraudulent accounts to the   credit reporting companies. Get copies of documents related to the   theft of your identity, like transaction records or applications for   new accounts. Write to the company that has the documents, and include   a copy of your identity theft report. You also can tell the company to   give the documents to a specific law enforcement agency. Stop a debt   collector from contacting you. In most cases, debt collectors must   stop contacting you after you send them a letter telling them to stop.   Get written information from a debt collector about a debt, including   the name of the creditor and the amount you supposedly owe. If a debt   collector contacts you about a debt, request this information in   writing. I know that you said that the main problem was that your credit account was combined with another. But there might be a chance that identity theft was involved. If this is the case, and you can prove it, then you might have access to more tools to help you. For example, you can file a report with the FTC, and along with a police report, this can be a powerful tool in stopping these charges. Feel free to go to the identitytheft.gov website for more information." No credit bureau wants incorrect data, for obvious reasons, but it happens. That's one reason why they let you get access to your credit score, to check it the data is correct and make the 'product' (data about you) better.   Nope, that's not why you can get free access to your credit report.  The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is why.  FCRA requires any credit reporting agency to provide you a free report upon request every 12 months.  Prior to this law, credit agencies made you pay to see your report including if you wanted it to dispute errors.  They only care about the dollars they get from having this data. FCRA removed one of their revenue streams.  If free locking moves forward, that will remove another. So expect them to fight it. "You should hire a lawyer. The fact that they told you your personal information shows that they actually had it, and are not imposters, which is a good thing. The fact that they mislead you means that their intentions are not pure (which is not surprising coming from a collection agency of course). When dealing with collections (or any matter of significance for that matter), don't rely on their recording of the call, because they can always conveniently lose it. Make sure to write down every single detail discussed, including the date and time of the call, and the ID/name of the person on the other side. If possible - make your own recording (notifying them of it of course). It's too late to record the calls now, but do try to reconstruct as much information as possible to provide to your lawyer to deal with it. In the end of the day they will either provide you with the recording (and then you might be surprised to hear that what they said was not in fact what you thought they said, and it was just your wishful thinking, it is very possible to be indeed the case), or claim ""we lost it"" and then it will be a problem to either of you to prove who said what, but they'll have the better hand (having better lawyers) in convincing the court that you're the one trying to avoid paying your debts. That is why proper representation at all stages is important. As to the bankruptcy - it won't help for student loans, student loans is one of the very few types of debts you can't really run away from. You have to solve this, the sooner the better. Get a professional advice. For the future (and for the other readers) - you should have gotten the professional advice before defaulting on these loans, and certainly after the first call." Collections companies buy debt for a fraction of the face value of the debt (as little as 5-7 cents on the dollar), and you can often settle debt for a fraction of the face amount (perhaps 10-25 cents on the dollar). But there are several considerations.  Do you owe the debt (is it a legitimate debt), can you afford to pay the debt, what is the age of the debt (remember, there is a statute of limitations on debt, varies by state), and what are the consequences of non-payment or settlement of the debt. Rather than confirm that you owe the debt, tell the debt collector that you need proof that the debt is yours (you should do this by certified letter).  Be careful not to confirm the debt, or agree to pay it, or make any payments (yet). You said that your doctor ordered the product for you. You said the company sent you a product (you have the product). Once you have confirmed that the debt is yours, you should determine the age of the debt (when was the last time you paid on the debt).  Each state has statute of limitations on debt, depending upon the age of the debt (this is why it is important not to send the collector money until you have verified the debt). You did not state when the debt was incurred (assume under SoL). Ask yourself whether you can afford to pay the debt.  The amount of the debt, and your ability to pay, and whether you want to avoid the time and expense of dealing with the collector (they are trained to be annoying) are all factors to consider.  You should also consider the negative consequences (credit score effects), and whether the cost of a derogatory entry is worth fighting the debt. You did not explain your financial situation; paying the $55 may be trivial, or it may be a hardship. Before you settle any debt, you should send a letter (keep a copy and proof you sent it, certified), and demand that the debt collector provide proof that you owe the debt.  Often this proof does not exist, or is insufficient to gain a judgement (you would need legal help here).  And should a debt collector agree to settle the debt for a lower amount, you need to get that agreement in writing.  Be aware that when you settle a debt, the collector can (and will) send you a 1099 for the portion of the debt which has been forgiven, and can report to the credit bureaus that you settled a debt for less than the full amount (negative mark against credit).  Derogatory credit items will haunt you for years. Decide whether saving $20, $30 or even $55 is worth the trouble.  Probably not. Learn from this. When a company sends you something you did not order, contact them, and send it back or demand they pay shipping, and send them a letter demanding $5/day storage and $20 handling fee to ship it back to them. Disclaimer: Heed the insane ravings of a deranged heretic at your peril... hire a lawyer. "Typically, the CC company itself won't follow the customer very far upon a default (though it certainly can act as its own debt collector, or hire an agency for a fee to do the collection).  What most often happens: Once they do that, assuming they win the lawsuit, they can do the following: They cannot ""force"" you into bankruptcy, but they might make it so you have no better options (if bankruptcy is less painful than the above, which it often is).  They certainly can (and will) report to the credit bureaus, of course.  For more information, Nolo has a decent help site on this subject. Different jurisdictions have slightly different rules, so look up yours.  Here is an example (this is from Massachusetts). Not every debt is sued for, of course; particularly, pay attention to the statute of limitations in your state.  (In mine, it's seven years, for example.)  And it's probably worth contacting someone locally (a legitimate non-profit debt relief agency, or your state's help agency if they have one) to find local rules and regulations."