How Can You Get Hard Inquiries Off Your Credit Report?

Hard inquiries may take anywhere from 24 months to 72 months to be removed from credit reports depending on the credit bureau.

Let me start by stating that a credit report works a great deal in your financial life. Your credit report enables lenders to decide whether or not you qualify for a loan or credit card whenever you apply. A credit crunch is one of the ways that could harm your credit scores because it usually results in having many hard inquiries on your credit history. However, you may be able to have some of those hairs removed. Here is the information.

What is a credit check?

Whenever you seek credit for a purchase, like a credit card, an automobile, or a home, the granting credit company will pull up your credit report. This leads to what is called a hard inquiry in the trade. Credit scores may be reduced by a small amount after the occurrence of hard inquiries if many of them were made within a short period. That is because multiple hard inquiries can make lenders think about the applicant as a high-risk customer.

This type of inquiry does not impact your credit score in any way whatsoever. Soft inquiries include when one checks his or her credit report, or when credit companies assess one’s creditworthiness to extend pre-approved credit card offers. Those are not reflected on the credit reports and are not as a result likely to affect your credit score.

Why should we remove Them From Your Report?

However, it is equally harmful to have too many hard inquiries on your report within a short period since they create a perception of higher credit risk and hence pull down credit scores. This is not good for your credit if you need new credit shortly because it can reduce your probability of getting approved. They are seen on your credit report for 24 months but they affect your credit scores less and less in the succeeding months. Most scoring models exclude some inquiries from the list and they only consider those inquiries that were made for the past year. Nevertheless, when there are many unnecessary tough credit checks, this can be dangerous.

Certain ones stem from searching for the most suitable and affordable rates. In some cases, when you rate search for a mortgage, auto loan, or student loan within forty days, as per the credit scoring models, all inquiries arising from the same type of loan, will be counted as one to help prevent your scores from being dragged down. Not all inquiries are treated like this and thus, ridding yourself of the ones you do not need, would greatly benefit your case.

The emphasis is to keep abreast with the fact that, in your report, erroneous inquiries and duplicate inquiries must be removed. They may arise when a lender uses more than one credit reference agency to request your report. But there are actions you can take to attempt to rectify your credit reports.

Hard credit inquiries can be removed from credit reports through a dispute process when incorrect information has been entered by the credit bureaus or their data furnishers.

Go to www.annualcreditreport.com to obtain the credit reports of Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Go through them and evaluate, especially, any hard inquiries that you did not personally apply for or authorize including duplicates. The following are some of the right approaches that you can undertake when disputing and seeking the removal of hard inquiries from your reports.

Settling Disputes through Credit Reporting Firms

The first step that one should undertake is writing a dispute letter to every bureau that contains false hard inquiries on the credit report. Again, observe that some lenders may report to one or two credit bureaus and sometimes none of the three, so it is advisable to monitor all three reports. Continue doing so until you can challenge the inquiries that you find were placed by the other party. The credit reporting agency has to investigate unless the complaint that you have filed with them is unmerited or irrelevant.

Apply for it in Person at the Place where the Lender Lives

You can also attempt contacting the initial lender who inquired. Make sure they understand that you did not apply for it or that they ran your credit report multiple times when there was no reasonable cause. Ask them to remove or dispute the information that was forwarded to the credit bureaus. However, it is not certain to receive cooperation from them, but when a mistake is committed, a lender can make amendments by contacting the bureaus.

Insert Credit Report Dispute Statement

During the process of a dispute, the credit bureau must include a one-hundred-word statement from the individual on the report. Recite this statement to express the inquiry you received and the reason you are responding to it. Your statement may help future lenders when they find the inquiries in your report if you explain the nature of the dispute. It is important to be short and to the point on the move while not being obscure. It is also important not to make statements that are overly adversarial or directed at shifting the blame onto the lender or credit reporting agency.

Presumably, the Account that arose from the Inquiry will be Disputed.

If there is a new account in your report that you know nothing about or think is a fake one, it is another way to get the hard inquiries that came with the account eliminated. The credit bureaus are supposed to be given details as to why the account was opened falsely. Then ask for the deletion of that account and any tough inquiries associated with it. This can address the root cause of the challenge.

Report a Complaint to FTC or the State Attorney General

You can also dispute the information that is reported to a particular credit bureau, with the state or federal consumer protection agencies. If the credit bureaus or lenders do not remove errors or fraudulent issues as a result of investigations, then it is suggested that the consumer report them to the state attorney general or the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They are extra dispute resolution tools that may help you get the corrections in your credit report that you want.

Produce More Evidence which Would Help to Prove Your Case

When initial disputes get rejected, the possibility of filing supplemental information with additional documents proves useful about the disputes. Samples of the other information that should be provided include a copy of your social security statement; a scanned copy of your driver's license or passport; proof of address history if the errors are on the fraudulent addresses; a scanned copy of your utility bills etc. Forwarding this information to the credit bureaus and incorporating it into your dispute claim helps them get more information when they are reconsidering disputes.

Seek assistance from the credit repair agencies

If there are remaining issues, you may also consider seeking assistance from credit repair services with expertise in analyzing credit reports and managing disputes. They can submit disputes on your behalf and the dispute teams deal with lenders and bureaus for you. However, be careful with con artists who claim that you can have a new identity within a week and that they can help you obtain fake identification documents or credit cards for bad credit. Also, compare the pricing since many of the platforms charge monthly fees.

Effect of Soft Credit Hitting

When hard inquiries that were not asked for are removed, this has a positive impact on your credit score. Removing inquiries could also put you in the best light that future lenders find you less of a credit risk if they previously rejected you due to many inquiries lowering your scores. Just appreciate that the possibility of getting rid of accurate inquiries about the credit that you applied for is quite a herculean task. The keys are not getting all the hard inquiries removed rather fixing inaccurate inquiries is the problem.

General credit report checking makes it easier because it allows one to notice the errors and false inquiries as they occur. This is because the earlier you stop the indicated problems, the less they continue to damage your creditworthiness. Hard inquiries that you have made through a reputable source will most of the time reflect on your credit report and disappear at some point hence no need to stress about having a few of them. However, if your reports do contain annoying erroneous, or unnecessary hard inquiries, then you have learned that there are some methods for you to polish up your credit.

Ready to boost your credit score? Call +1 888-804-0104 now for the best credit repair services near you! Our expert team is here to help you achieve financial freedom and improve your credit. Don't wait—get started today!