How To Get Rid Of Inquiries On Your Credit Report?

Introduction to Credit Inquiries Whenever you apply for any kind of credit for example credit card, automobile, or a home loan then you will be expected to provide credit references and the credit grantor will pull your credit report to help them in deciding whether or not to approve your application. This check is reported on your credit report as an inquiry which also can be called a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries can be dangerous to your credit scores particularly so in a situation where they are numerous within a short period.

According to the law, information about inquiries usually stays on your credit reports for two years, however, FICO utilizes credit scores of the past year only. Although receiving a few inquiries a year may not be very harmful to your scores, receiving too many inquiries is considered to be more risky by lenders, thus your scores will be lowered. This paints the picture of the kind of questions that you may be asking yourself regarding the possibility and manner in which you can eliminate inquiries from your reports while working towards enhancing your credit scores.

The next questions that often arise in people’s minds are: how long does it take for inquiries to appear on your credit report and how long do they last? As pointed out earlier, inquiries normally take about 2 years to fade away from your Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion reports. However, most FICO credit scoring models don’t even count inquiries made within the past year toward your scores. If the inquiries are older than 12 months then they will be completely neutral to your credit scores.

This implies that given the inquiries that may be present on your actual credit reports and have been made more than a year ago, you may not benefit from deleting them through scoring. Rather avoid this and manage new inquiries so that you can still be able to keep up with your scores. The only circumstance where this may not be the case is if you expect to secure a mortgage anytime soon – FICO mortgage scores have been known to take into account inquiries made within the last 2 years.

Hard vs Soft Inquiries Some inquiries are bad for your scores and not others. Most credit inquiries are what are known as “hard” inquiries – these are the ones that can potentially harm your credit scores depending on their number.

Such inquiries are generally from companies that you have a relationship with and who are legally allowed to check your score to send you pre-approved offers, employers who may want to conduct background checks on you, or even yourself when you request your credit scores. If you are wondering whether soft inquiries will affect your credit scores in any way, the answer is NO. This means that there is no need to exclude such kinds of inquiries in your reports, especially the ones resulting from a high level of traffic.

In what Circumstances Hard Inquiries Could Be Erased In general, any accurate negative information like inquiries must be reported on your credit reports for the standard reporting period as is required by law.

However, there are a few scenarios where you may be able to successfully dispute inquiries and potentially have them removed from your credit reports, including:

• The inquiry came as a result of fake identity or cheating.
• They include forgetting that they authorized the credit check or application for credit.
• The inquiry includes private information about you which is untrue.
• The inquiry speaks credit that was nevertheless not given to you.

If any of the above apply, you can dispute the inquiries with the appropriate credit bureau online, send the credit bureau a letter, or call them. Always attach copies of any documents that support your claims with the dispute letter for instance when your identity was stolen or a police report.

Measures of Minimizing the Effects of Inquiries However, if there are real recent inquiries that should not be removed but must stay on the reports, then do not worry.

Here are some tips for reducing the scoring impact of credit inquiries so they don't tank your credit scores:

Space out credit applications - Applying for too many new credits at once gives a negative impression about the person. If you are planning to make a lot of purchases, ensure that you do it at different times rather than at one time.

New applications should be limited – Before applying, the applicant should be able to determine whether they will be granted approval or not. Do not go overboard and use an application for every small need; aim for using not more than one application per half a year.

Minimize credit check impacts - If you want to acquire a mortgage, auto loan, or any other type of loan, don’t apply with many lenders in a short period.

Increase credit utilization - If one’s overall credit limits have been raised, this can offset the harm done by new inquiries. Demand a higher limit from issuers regularly.

Minimize account closures - The credit crunch resulting from the closure of credit accounts is detrimental because it increases the extent to which credit inquiries affect the credit utilization ratio. Leave accounts open.

Minimize negative information - Make every effort to keep all payments timely and credit utilization below 30% to counterbalance inquiries.

Stay calm – The effects of questions are transient. Maintaining proper credit habits and allowing the inquiries to fall off the credit reports.

The Bottom Line Applying for new credit means that it will show as a recent hard inquiry which if any, will affect your credit scores. However, the false or erroneous entries may potentially be checked out of your credit reports if challenged as required. If one has genuine questions the best way to reduce their impact is by practicing good credit. Restrict the number of new accounts, request lenders to report multiple inquiries as a single inquiry, keep the balances low against credit limits, and continue to pay all sorts of bills on time as before. Patience in waiting for requests to expire on the reports also goes a long way in raising scores in due course.

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