Most people know that every time a potential creditor pulls your credit report in connection with an application for credit, your credit score is slightly affected.  This type of inquiry is known in the trade as a “hard pull”.  There is a second kind of credit report access called a “soft inquiry” or “soft pull.” These inquiries are properly for the purpose of a firm offer of credit (a promotional inquiry), an account review of an existing account or for the collection of an existing account, or for the consumer’s own use. Sometimes a soft pull is appropriate for confirming the identity of a person.

Because they aren’t part of your credit score, soft pulls are not thought of as being as damaging as hard pulls – but that might not always be true. In fact, for privacy purposes, the soft pulls may be even more damaging because they are not tracked as closely.  You might not even know who had access to your credit file.

Right now I am looking into whether Capital One Bank has been accessing a large number of consumer credit files on a  large number of occasions without making a  corresponding firm offer of credit in exchange for the information.

The next time you check your credit report (available for free one time a year from www.annualcreditreport.com), pay attention to the sections marked “Promotional inquiries” and “Account Review Inquiries”.  The promotional inquiries should generally not have the same companies getting your report on many occasions.  The account review inquiries should relate to companies that you have actually done business with or with third party debt collectors who are currently servicing one of your accounts or who did so in the past.  If you don’t remember receiving any offers of credit, or if a creditor listed under an account inquiry is unfamiliar to you, you can write that company, give them your name, address and partial social security number (partial only), and ask them to tell you the reason they accessed your credit each time.  Ask them to identify the account they claim to be servicing; and ask them to explain to you what firm offers of credit they made and when.  If they can’t answer these questions to your satisfaction,  you should talk to an experienced consumer lawyer in your area. You can find one through the National Association of Consumer Advocates’ “find an attorney”  page linked here.http://www.consumeradvocates.org/find-an-attorney