If you find an unauthorized or inaccurate hard inquiry, you can file a dispute letter and request that the bureau remove it from your report. The consumer credit bureaus must investigate dispute requests unless they determine your dispute is frivolous. Still, not all disputes are accepted after investigation.
I am writing to request the removal of unauthorized credit inquiries on my (name of the credit bureau—Equifax, Experian and/or TransUnion) credit report. My latest credit report shows (number of hard inquiries you are disputing) credit inquiries that I did not authorize.
Should You Remove Hard Inquiries? The idea of removing hard inquiries from your credit report to improve your credit score may sound appealing. But disputing a genuine hard inquiry on your credit report will likely not result in any change to your scores. You can, however, dispute ones that are a result of fraud.
Contact the Creditor
You can get in touch with the company that requested the inquiry and ask them to prove that this inquiry was real. If it was a reporting error, you could have them contact the credit bureaus to have it removed from your credit report.
The credit bureaus should remove hard inquiries from your credit reports after two years, and the inquiries won't necessarily impact your credit scores for the entire time. FICO Scores only consider hard inquiries from the previous 12 months when calculating your score.
No, you can't manually remove hard credit searches from your credit report. If you find a hard search on your credit report that you don't recognise, this could be a sign of fraud and/or identity theft. If that's the case, you need to address it quickly.
If you identify an error on your credit report, you should start by disputing that information with the credit reporting company (Experian, Equifax, and/or Transunion). You should explain in writing what you think is wrong, why, and include copies of documents that support your dispute.
However, multiple hard inquiries can deplete your score by as much as 10 points each time they happen. People with six or more recent hard inquiries are eight times as likely to file for bankruptcy than those with none. That's way more inquiries than most of us need to find a good deal on a car loan or credit card.
The letter requests an investigation into the disputed information under Section 623 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), aiming to correct errors and ensure the accuracy of the credit report. This process allows individuals to address and rectify any inaccuracies that may impact their creditworthiness.
Since hard inquiries affect your credit score and what is found may even affect approval, you might be wondering: How many inquiries is too many? The answer differs from lender to lender, but most consider six total inquiries on a report at one time to be too many to gain approval for an additional credit card or loan.
How do hard inquiries impact your credit score? A hard credit inquiry could lower your credit score by as much as 10 points, though in many cases the damage probably won't be that significant. As FICO explains: “For most people, one additional credit inquiry will take less than five points off their FICO Scores.”
The only way to get hard inquiries removed from your credit report in a single day is to dispute them as errors.
Credit repair companies can't remove legitimate hard inquiries from your credit report, and neither can anyone else. And there's really no need to pay a credit repair company to get an inaccurate inquiry removed, since you can do that yourself for free.
A 609 dispute letter is actually not a dispute but is simply a way of requesting that the credit bureaus provide you with certain documentation that substantiates the authenticity of the bureaus' reporting.
If you spot wrong account numbers, mismarked payments, or unfamiliar accounts, dispute away. Include solid evidence like bank statements proving the errors.
You cannot remove collections from your credit report without paying if the information is accurate, but a collection account will fall off your credit report after 7 years whether you pay the balance or not.
To get an inquiry removed within 24 hours, you need to physically call the companies that placed the inquiries on the telephone and demand their removal.
In most cases, hard inquiries have very little if any impact on your credit scores—and they have no effect after one year from the date the inquiry was made. So when a hard inquiry is removed from your credit reports, your scores may not improve much—or see any movement at all.
Although inquiries can remain on your credit reports for up to two years, FICO algorithms ignore any inquiry over 12 months old. After 6 months, FICO algorithms give very little weight to inquiries. At best, you'd gain a point if the inquiry were deleted after 6 months. Before 6 months, maybe 2 or 3 points.
If you apply for credit from a company, they may require more information about you, and perform a hard credit search. All hard searches will appear on your credit report and if too many are made in a short period of time, it may affect your credit score. Conversely, soft credit searches won't affect your credit score.
Hard inquiries are taken off your credit reports after two years. But your credit scores may only be affected for a year, and sometimes it might only be for a few months. Lenders may be concerned if you have too many hard inquiries on your credit report within a short period of time.
You can send disputes by mail to TransUnion Consumer Solutions, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016-2000. TransUnion recommends including the following in your dispute letter: Your Social Security number and date of birth. Your current address.