I have had credit problems in the past. I had no less than 10 paid collections on my credit reports at one time. Time has passed and these items were deleted. However, there were a few bad debts each under $300 that I never paid which went to collections and eventually got deleted from my credit report by statute as well. (When these items did appear on my credit report I made conscientious efforts to pay them off by contacting the collectors in writing by certified mail offering to pay the whole amount if they would only PROMISE in writing to totally delete their trade lines. They never responded on point to my request but just kept sending the same old letter.) Well, now that my credit reports are clean of any negative information and now that, like many of you, I have the usual Capital One and Providian cards to "rebuild" my credit I have been warned by a friend that these collection agencies will make "inquiries" into my report which will essentially scar me for two years and keep doing this every two years. One of these companies is called "Apex Collectors" and the other is "Performance Capital". If they do make such inquiries do I have any legitimate means to contest their presence on my reports?
RE: Collection Agency Use of & Get your credit report from all 3 bureaus at least once a year. The report will list all inquiries that are seen by anyone pulling the report. If you see any inquiries you don't know, or did not authorize that company to pull your report, write a letter to the credit bureau(s) and protest it. Tell them you did not authorize that and that you want it deleted. Send the letter certified, return receipt requested. Also, follow up with a phone call, but don't forget to send the letter. Good luck.
RE: Collection Agency Use of & In your letter you must state that the inquiry was done with no "permissable purpose". That's the key phrase for getting an inquiry removed from your credit files. If a collection agency holding a collection account of yours wants to pull your file they must do so as an "account review" inquiry which is not visible to potential creditors. The only reason they play this inquiry game is to punish the person if they are holding an account they can't collect on because the account is past statute or for whatever reason. This tactic is basically illegal.
