Well about a month ago we located a place nearby where we can pay $9.00 and get our Equifax report. It is a small collection agency I believe. Hubby stopped by yesterday and bought another one (our 2nd from them) and on the front page it says INQUIRY ALERT-SUBJECT SHOWS 4 INQUIRIES SINCE 11/02. I looked under the inquiries and CB Para, the place we got our reports from, shows an inquiry from last month. I don't know how to tell "hard inquiries" from "soft inquiries" on Equifax, so I called them and they said they don't think there's a difference. They called me back and told me they called the Memphis Consumer Credit (our local EQ affiliate) and they told them there isn't a difference. Is there a different code they should be using so it doesn't show up as "hard" on there? Second question--I asked for validation for 2 items in collections listed by the same CA. They sent copies of bills so I resent validation letters and they said they provided me with enough evidence according to FDCP and they were going to send EQ a notice that I was disputing the debt. Well, after getting EQ report yesterday, they did do their part and report them as being disputed, but they also show up under inquiries as pulling my report on 2/3/03 which is after they already responded to me. Also, under collections where it says "RPTD" they updated the date to 1/03. I have only been at this for a month, so please go easy on me if this seems incoherent...I really don't know if they have committed any violation and I'm not one to sue somebody, but I don't think they should have updated through EQ and certainly shouldn't have pulled my file...or am I just being overlysensitive? All help is very much appreciated. If you need more facts or if I haven't been clear, let me know. Thanks.
EQ - Ive seen it several ways - Hards will have no coding in front of the name of the company. Softs will show up with such codes as AR, PRM, DTC, EU, etc. Also, depending on how this firm's layout is of the report, it may also have a section that says "Inquiries seen by others". Those are Hards. Finally, I know some places that pull for you, can only show your hard inquiries. So if this doesn't help, tell us more of what you are seeing. CA - What kind of bill, medical, credit card, utility? They updated thru EQ, as in dispute, which is what they are supposed to do.
no offense, but you really need to read the first three post and get a better understanding of the process. If it was me, I would order my reports from the source, whenever possible.. equifax, transunion and experian.
