How to remove inquiries from a credit reports

Credit inquiries are the entries visible on your credit report when an authorized person, organization, or you access it. Credit inquiries occur as a result of various inquiries, like requests for credit approval, requests for service or goods, reviews made by the company you cooperate with, and a pre-approved credit offer sent to you.

Keep reading to learn about credit inquiries, their importance, and how to remove them from your credit report.

Credit Inquiries

Depending on the type, credit inquiries can be soft and hard inquiries. For example, a sent pre-approved credit offer is a soft inquiry and has no impact on your credit score. The hard one includes the loan application and has a minimal negative impact on the credit score. Hard inquiries can lower your credit score by up to 5 points, and they stay there for two years, but they only affect your score for one.

You must keep an eye on your credit report thus you know if you have any new inquiries. Also, there may be errors in the credit report. Therefore, you must regularly check your credit report and react in case of errors.

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Importance of credit inquiries

Soft inquiries do not affect your credit score and are not visible to anyone but you. They remain on your report for 12 or 24 months. Therefore, if you have soft inquiries on your credit report, there is no reason to worry.

If there is a hard inquiry on your credit report and you know it is legitimate, there is nothing you can do about it. You have to wait for the next 12 months. Later it will no longer affect your credit score.

If you see a hard inquiry that you know is not legitimate, it is crucial to remove it. Although a hard inquiry has little impact on your credit score, it is important to take action. Also, it can be a sign of fraud, and you should thoroughly investigate what it is about, how that hard inquiry ended up in your credit report, and remove it. Solve this problem in time and improve your credit score. Therefore, do not hesitate to contact professionals who will provide you with credit inquiry removal in 24 hour.

Removing inaccurate credit inquiries

If you decide to remove the incorrect inquiries by yourself, follow the next steps. You must know that this process is not easy.

Access your credit reports free of charge

First, request a review of your credit report from all three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Although the information should be the same at all three credit bureaus, check all of them. Once a year, you can request your credit reports free of charge.

Keep an eye on for any inaccurate hard inquiries

When you get your credit report, pay attention to the section for hard inquiries. Make sure there are no incorrect hard inquiries on your credit report. You may notice an inquiry from a company with which you have not done business. It may happen that, for example, you applied for a card in a store, but the bank name appears on your credit report. It could happen if the banks manage the credit inquiries of the store where you requested the card.

File a Dispute

There are two reasons incorrect hard inquiries appear on your credit report.

The first case is that if you requested the service, the provider could check your credit report without notifying you. For example, if you want to take internet services from another provider, and that new company checked your credit report without your approval, you have grounds to initiate a dispute.

Another case is that if you see a hard inquiry that you don’t know where it comes from, it could be a sign of a random error or fraud. The first step in resolving incorrect hard inquiries is to contact the listed company. If you realize it is a fraud, the advice is to freeze the credit or set a fraud warning. If you find out an inquiry is not legitimate, contact all three bureaus to dispute these illegitimate inquiries. Then the company will conduct an investigation and remove incorrect hard inquiries.

Wrapping up

If you do not want to face fake hard inquiries, check your credit report once a year. That way, you can spot irregularities and react in time. Sometimes an accidental mistake can happen, and sometimes it is a fraud. If this happens to you, follow the above procedure or contact the experts to solve the problem.