What to Do When You Have Unauthorized Hard Inquiries (2024)

FAQs

How do I get rid of unauthorized hard inquiries? ›

What to do: Contact the creditor responsible for the hard inquiry. You should be able to find their contact details on their official website or social media page. Explain that you believe there is an error on your credit report and request that they remove the inquiry.

If warranted, file a dispute with the corresponding credit bureau. If you dispute errors in your credit reports, including unauthorized hard inquiries, the credit bureaus are required to investigate. They're also required to correct information that's found to be inaccurate.

So, if you're applying for a credit product like a new credit card or a car loan, your potential lender will perform a hard credit inquiry to see your full credit report, which will impact your score. They must ask you permission to perform this kind of inquiry, however.

Right to Seek Damages: If a credit bureau, a user of consumer reports, or a provider of information to a bureau violates the FCRA, you may be able to sue in state or federal court for damages. Additionally, companies may face a penalty for running credit without permission.

If you can't trace the reason for a hard inquiry or you believe it was done without your consent, you can dispute it online. If the credit bureau can't confirm it as a legitimate inquiry, it's required to remove it.

Credit repair companies cannot remove legitimate hard inquiries, and they can't remove inaccurate inquiries any more effectively than you can yourself. You have the right to dispute inaccurate hard inquiries on your credit report for free.

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.

There's no concrete answer. Generally, though, the more hard inquiries conducted for multiple lines of credit within a brief time window, the greater the impact on the applicant's credit score, and the more likely a lender will deem the borrower too risky.

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.

As mentioned above, you can't remove a hard pull from your credit report just because you want to lower your credit score. If you gave the lender or credit card company permission to delve into your financial background, that inquiry will be on your credit report.

What if a hard inquiry on my credit report is not mine? ›

Hire an Attorney. If you're positive the inquiry was not authorized by you and did not belong on your report, but the company refuses to remove it, it's time to hire a credit report attorney. They can help you legally dispute an unauthorized credit inquiry under FCRA.

Common violations of the FCRA include:

Failure to update reports after completion of bankruptcy is just one example. Agencies might also report old debts as new and report a financial account as active when it was closed by the consumer. Creditors give reporting agencies inaccurate financial information about you.

When you request a copy of your credit report, you will see a list of anyone who has requested your credit report within the past year, including any employers or prospective employers who have requested your report within the past two years for employment purposes.

Disputing hard inquiries on your credit report involves working with the credit reporting agencies and possibly the creditor that made the inquiry. Hard inquiries can't be removed, however, unless they're the result of identity theft. Otherwise, they'll have to fall off naturally, which happens after two years.

File a Dispute With Each Credit Reporting Agency That Issued an Inaccurate Credit Report. You may initiate a dispute about an incomplete or inaccurate item in your credit report online, by mail, or by phone. In your dispute, identify each error, supply the correct information, and include supporting documentation.

Place or lift a credit freeze

Freeze or lift the freeze on your credit report for free by contacting each of the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax. Experian. TransUnion.