Navigating your credit report, you might notice ‘inquiries’, which are records of institutions checking your credit history. While inquiries are a standard part of credit processes, excessive ones can affect your score. Here’s how you can manage and potentially remove these inquiries.
What Are Credit Inquiries?
There are two types of credit inquiries:
- Hard Inquiries: These occur when lenders check your credit for lending purposes, like when you apply for a credit card, mortgage, or loan. Hard inquiries can temporarily reduce your credit score by a few points and stay on your report for two years.
- Soft Inquiries: These do not affect your credit score and occur when you or companies check your credit for non-lending purposes, like pre-approved offers.
Steps to Remove Inquiries:
If you’re thinking “how can I remove credit inquiries?”, you’re not alone. Here are steps you can take:
- Check for Accuracy: Regularly review your credit report from all three major bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Ensure all hard inquiries are ones you authorized.
- Dispute Unauthorized Inquiries: If you spot an unauthorized hard inquiry, you can dispute it. Write to the credit bureau and the company that made the inquiry, explaining that you did not authorize the check.
- Request for Removal: Even if an inquiry was legitimate, you can still request its removal. Contact the creditor directly, explain your concern, and politely ask if they’d be willing to remove the inquiry as a gesture of goodwill.
- Wait it Out: Remember, hard inquiries only impact your credit score for one year and completely fall off after two. If you’re close to these timeframes, it might be best to let them naturally expire.
Protecting Your Credit from Future Inquiries
- Limit Credit Applications: Only apply for new credit when absolutely necessary.
- Inquire about Inquiry: When discussing loans or credit, ask if the institution will be doing a hard inquiry. This way, you can decide if it’s worth the potential credit score hit.
- Stay Alert: Use credit monitoring services to get alerted about new inquiries on your credit report.
Bottom Line
While individual inquiries might have a minor impact, a flurry of them can signal credit desperation to potential lenders. By actively managing and understanding the nature of these inquiries, you can maintain a healthier credit report and ensure a smoother financial journey. Remember, your credit is a reflection of your financial responsibility, and every detail counts.
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Reviewed By:
Ashley Davison
Editor
Ashley is currently the Chief Compliance Officer for Credit Saint, previously the Chief Operating Officer. Ashley got into the Financial world by working as a Logistics Coordinator at Ernst & Young. Coming from a previous career in education, she is eager to teach the world everything she knows and learn everything that she doesn’t! Ashley is a FICO® certified professional, a Board Certified Credit Consultant, a Certified Credit Score Consultant with the Credit Consultants Association of America, UDAAP certified, and holds a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Compliance Certificate.
