If you have bad history with a creditor where you defaulted on a loan and did not pay them back, they have the right to pull your credit report for unspecified reasons. Say you owed a lender money and your loan has been defaulted for the past 3 or 4 years, they can inquire about your credit report years after the fact. This inquiry will come up as a hard pull. Remember, each time someone does a hard pull on your credit report it can knock your score down a few points.