How Can You Get Inquiries Off Your Credit Report?
Introduction Checking your credit report will not harm your score but credit inquiries do affect the credit score if several credit accounts have been recently applied for. This is because lenders may be in a position to realize that you are requesting too many loans within a short duration, and this may make them decline your application or offer you a higher interest rate. However, most inquiries tend to leave credit reports automatically with time, provided nobody adds to them. However, one might want to attempt to dispute entries that should not be there or that are having a negative effect. The following are some of the tips that people can follow to have their inquiries removed from their credit reports.
Check Your Credit Report The first thing you need to do is access your credit report from at least three of the main bureaus, these are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Credit reports are available, free of charge once per year, from the website www. annualcreditreport. com. Looking at this list, review all inquiries mentioned there. Write down any that you are unfamiliar with whenever you receive a credit application for. The other aspect to note is the date of inquiries, most of which should be removed from your credit report after two years.
Dispute Errors If you come across any inquiries that are reporting in error, you can challenge them in the credit bureau. Obtain photocopies of any documents that have information indicating that the accounts do not belong to you. Lastly, the consumer should write letters of dispute to each of the credit bureaus that have reported the false inquiry. Make sure to affix photocopies of all supporting documents. The credit bureau is typically given 30 days to dispute the claim made by the consumer. I always make sure that if they cannot confirm the inquiry, they have to delete it from my credit report.
Remove Obsolete Inquiries According to the legislation, it is legal for inquiries to stay on your credit report for two years. After that, they should drop off your report having been automatically generated by the computer system. If you come across any inquiries older than two years still reporting you can contact the credit bureaus and ask them to delete them from a credit report. This will go a long way in what you need to clean up your credit report if there are old inquiries that are still being reported into the third year and beyond.
Limit New Credit Applications Do not be reckless and apply for credit blindly because this will only result in a lot of inquiries being made on your credit report. Do not apply for credit frequently, the minimum time should be three months apart to ensure one does not apply for credit frequently. Multiple applications within a short period will directly negatively affect your scores. Additionally, cancel an application if you no longer wish to pursue a different account. It can assist in canceling the inquiry if it has not emerged as a part of your credit report.
Soft Inquiry Creditors Asking Them to Submit If you are actively comparing mortgage rates, auto loan rates, and student loan rates, you can request lenders to pull your credit report as a soft credit pull as opposed to a hard credit pull. Soft inquiries are not detrimental to scoring and therefore do not affect credit scores. This enables the consumer to search for the most favorable rates without compromising the credit score by the inquiries.
Write Friendly Letters to Creditors If you have accumulated one or two more hard inquiries from rate shopping but could not get approval, maybe it is OK to write goodwill letters to the creditors. Tell them the situation briefly and then politely request them to remove the inquiries from your credit file as a courtesy. Keep in mind that they are not obliged to do so but some of the creditors can negotiate with the customer to delete such entries.
I observed that when I wait for the Inquiries to drop down naturally, it does. It is wise to note that most of the credit inquiries when they are left unchecked, take between one to two years in the credit report before they disappear on their own. Wait for some time and also check your credit reports to confirm that such inquiries do not persist after a given period. Do not apply for any other credit at least six months before applying for major credit like a mortgage so that the inquiries that are previously made can remain active and not be deleted from the credit reports.
Dispute Obsolete Pre-Approved Offers If you get credit card applications in the mail that say you have been pre-approved, the company can run a soft credit check without your knowledge or consent. Make it a practice to challenge any soft inquiries that are older than six months with the credit bureaus in a bid to get them deleted from your credit reports. It is crucial to understand here that most of today’s pre-approval soft inquiries do not influence scores in any way.
Conclusion The best way is to clear your credit reports frequently to notice any entries that Were made without your consent. By challenging, goodwill letters and waiting for a while or letting the inquiries fade away, one may be able to have all the unwanted inquiries expunged. Being selective when applying for credit and only applying for credit when necessary can also help in lowering the number of inquiries made on your credit report. This way, credit inquiries may not pull down your score as many points as when you are inattentive.
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