How To Get Hard Inquiries Off Of Your Credit Report?

Can Hard Inquiries Be Removed from Your Credit Report?

The corporation is very likely to do what is known as a hard credit check/inquiry if you apply for any kind of credit, including credit cards, auto loans or vehicle loans, mortgages or house loans, or any other credit-related product. This implies they may review your credit score and credit record to determine whether or not you should be given credit; if so, what conditions should you be offered?

Although the lender must decide, many hard inquiries will undoubtedly damage your credit score for the three major credit reference companies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. This is so because a lot of questions in a short period might be seen as a larger credit risk as it shows that one is actively looking for additional credit lines.

Luckily, harsh inquiries have a limited period of view and are not permanent. This is what you should be aware of about the length they are kept on the credit records and how to expedite their deletion.

What Hard Inquiries on Credit Reports Should You Be Aware Of and How Long Do They Stay?

The effect that a hard credit check has in reducing or diminishing your credit score is not permanent and it reduces with time. Here is how long they can remain visible on your credit reports:

Equifax – The hard inquiries are reported to your Equifax credit report for one year.
Experian – Credit check On your Experian file, you will have hard credit inquiries for the next two years.
Trans Union – Hard inquiries are reported on your credit report for two years by this bureau.

What I have explained above is that the hard inquiries do come off the reports on their own without doing anything but they are capable of dragging your scores down for two years from the date that the inquiry was made.

If you have several accounts recently opened or several inquiries recently made, it will be interpreted by lenders that you may not be able to manage new credit commitments properly. Hence, it can be advantageous to get hard inquiries deleted from the credit reports earlier if you have obtained whatever credit you require.

Generally, you cannot remove hard inquiries from your credit reports on your own or without the consent of the credit reporting agencies, since they are considered accurate and legitimate by the credit bureaus.

That being said, the following are the methods that can be used to remove unwanted hard inquiries from the credit reports more than waiting for them to disappear.

Dispute Inaccurate Hard Inquiries

If you receive a hard inquiry from a creditor that you did not authorize, you need to contact the creditor and request the removal of the hard inquiry from your credit reports.

This includes:

Unauthorized or suspicious phone calls or emails made on your behalf
This applies to cases where a former spouse or partner applies for credit in your name without consent
Losses occasioned by the generation of duplicate inquiries due to clerical mistakes

You will have to send the notice of the dispute to all three credit bureaus and the letter should include a brief explanation of why ever the hard inquiry is inaccurate and also supporting documents (police reports, court documents, etc.,) The credit bureaus are by law expected to investigate the disputed items within 30 days.

However, this dispute process cannot effectively eliminate valid hard credit checks; it only applies to inaccurately false or fraudulent ones.

Call Creditors Directly

If you decide to cancel a recent credit application with a lender, dial the creditor’s customer service number inform them that you have canceled the application, and request them to remove the hard credit inquiry from credit bureaus.

This can be effective when it was a ‘rate shopping’ inquiry when you got pre-approved with a creditor but declined to borrow a loan. When making these requests be polite but assertive and in cases where you do not receive an immediate response, you may have to follow up using email in an attempt to obtain some form of written confirmation that a certain inquiry has been withdrawn by the request of the lender.

Send Goodwill Letters

If you applied for credit and got rejected or you opened new accounts that are not necessary that you want to engage in, you may write creditors and request them to delete hard inquiries at an early stage. These letters request the recipient kindly yet rather insistently to expunge credit checks out of benevolence even though this depends on the subject.

Make sure goodwill letters emphasize these key points:

Dear [Customer name], You are a loyal customer of this store, and you have been buying products from this store for a long time.
The extra inquiry is harming your credit score significantly even if it has been established that it does not affect the scores.
And you wish they would withdraw the inquiry as a matter of social etiquette.
You are grateful for their attention on your part and willingness to grant your request

To help enforce the goodwill letters, call the contacts a week later to remind them to remove your details. Assuming that the hard inquiries are erroneous or not necessary, be insistent while courteous to try to get the inquiries removed as quickly as possible.

Wait It Out

However, if you have a good credit score and record, it may be more beneficial to simply wait for hard credit checks to drop off on their own. Do not continue to apply for credit and do what you can to continue your credit responsibility, such as making sure all your bills are paid on time and your credit utilization is low.

In two years, the effects of recent hard inquiries will reduce, while positive payment history emerges. Then apply for credit again if necessary when your credit profile is consistent with a return to responsible credit use. Combined with patience, good habits enable you to recover from credit errors that led to unwanted inquiries into your credit reports.

The Bottom Line

In terms of credit utilization, having too many hard inquiries and newly opened tradelines within a short period may be perceived as risky by prospective lenders who are reviewing your credit file. Hard inquiries and accounts showing up eventually fall off reports but taking appropriate measures to remove them earlier helps to improve credit scores.

The first attempt of challenging is best done on truly incorrect claims that are not commenced by you with the credit bureaus. You can also request the creditors to please withdraw any inquiries on the credit reports for your credit. If efforts to lift hard checks fail then it is good to wait for the time when they will automatically expire provided one will maintain proper credit management for a period ranging from one to two years.

Be as insistent as possible yet remain courteous if you wish to remove hard credit inquiries before they are submitted by the lenders. But do not apply for additional credit during this period If you have several credit applications and all of them are rejected, then more credit applications will also be rejected. The operative precept is to avoid applying too often or opening too many new accounts so that when the time comes that you need credit, your chances of being approved are optimized.

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