How to Get Inquiries Off of Your Credit Report

If you have inquiries on your credit report, it’s important to know how to get them removed. Find out the best methods for doing so here.

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How to Get Inquiries Off of Your Credit Report

If you have been trying to improve your credit score and have been making good financial choices, you may be wondering why you still have inquiries on your credit report. Inquiries can stay on your credit report for up to two years, but there are a few things you can do to get them removed.

What are inquiries and how do they affect your credit score?

Inquiries are defined as requests for your credit report. There are two types of inquiries:

1. Hard inquiries
2. Soft inquiries

Hard inquiries happen when you apply for new credit. They stay on your credit report for two years and can slightly hurt your credit score. On the other hand, soft inquiries occur when you or a lender checks your credit report but you’re not applying for new credit. These don’t affect your credit score.

Inquiries only make up 10% of your FICO® Score 9 calculation, so even a few points ding won’t have a huge effect on your score. And since hard inquiries stay on your report for just 24 months, their impact diminishes over time and disappears entirely after two years.

How to remove inquiries from your credit report

If you’re trying to improve your credit score, one of the first things you can do is remove any inquiries from your credit report. Inquiries are a record of when somebody has pulled your credit, and they can stay on your report for up to two years.

The good news is that inquiries only make up about 10% of your FICO® Score☉ , so even if you have a few, it’s not necessarily going to have a big impact on your score. And, if you have Inquiries that are more than two years old, they’ll fall off your credit report naturally over time and won’t impact your score at all.

If you have inquiries that are less than two years old, there are a couple things you can do to try to get them removed:

The first is to reach out to the lender or business that made the inquiry and ask them to remove it. They aren’t required to do this, but it’s always worth asking.

The second is to dispute the inquiry with the credit bureau that’s reporting it. You can do this by writing a letter explaining why the inquiry is inaccurate or shouldn’t be on your report. The credit bureau will then investigate and, if they agree with you, they’ll remove the inquiry from your report.

And finally, if you have a lot of inquiries on your report (say, more than five in the last six months), that could be an indication that you’re doing too much credit shopping and it could be hurting your score. In that case, it might be best to just wait for those Inquiries to fall off naturally rather than trying to dispute them or get them removed.

How to dispute an inquiry on your credit report

If you find an inquiry on your credit report that you don’t recognize, it could be the result of identity theft. Or, it could be a mistake. Either way, you have the right to dispute the inquiry and have it removed from your report.

Here’s how to dispute an inquiry on your credit report:

1. Gather any documentation you have that proves the inquiry is inaccurate. This could be a police report if you were a victim of identity theft, or a letter from the creditor indicating that the inquiry was made in error.

2. Write a dispute letter to the credit bureau (Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax) that is reporting the inaccurate inquiry. Include your full name, address, and Social Security number, as well as a copy of your documentation.

3. Send your dispute letter by certified mail and keep a copy for your records. The credit bureau has 30 days to investigate your claim and must remove the inquiry if it finds that it is inaccurate or fraudulent.

The Different Types of Inquiries

Credit inquiries are a necessary evil. They happen when companies check your credit in order to decide whether or not to approve you for a loan, credit card, or other type of credit. There are two types of inquiries: hard inquiries and soft inquiries. Hard inquiries happen when you actually apply for credit and they can stay on your credit report for up to two years. Soft inquiries happen when you check your own credit, or when a company checks your credit for pre-approval offers or other non-credit related reasons. Soft inquiries don’t affect your credit score and you can have as many of them as you want.

Hard inquiries

A hard inquiry is when a lender checks your credit as part of a credit application. When you check your own credit, that’s a soft inquiry. Any time your credit is checked, an inquiry is placed on your report. In most cases, hard inquiries stay on your report for two years and won’t affect your score after 12 months.

If you’re shopping around for a loan or credit card, it’s best to do it within a short period of time — ideally, within 14 to 45 days — so that all the inquiries are treated as a single inquiry when your credit score is calculated. FICO® scores distinguish between a shopping spree and rate-shopping by including all the inquiries from any given 14-45 day period in the score calculation as just one inquiry.

If you have more than six inquiries on your credit report in any 12-month period, that could be seen as an indication that you’re desperate for credit or having trouble managing your existing debts. Too many inquiries could lead to a higher interest rate if you are approved for a loan or new line of credit.

Soft inquiries

You’ve probably seen a lot of information about hard inquiries and how they can impact your credit scores. But what about soft inquiries?

Like hard inquiries, soft inquiries occur when a potential lender checks your credit report. But unlike hard inquiries, soft inquiries will not have any impact on your credit scores—and they aren’t even visible to anyone except you.

So, if soft inquiries don’t affect your credit scores, what are they good for?

Basically, soft inquiries give lenders a snapshot of your current credit situation without affecting your scores. This is why you might see a soft inquiry on your report after you check your own credit or when a lender does a routine check of all its customers (also known as account review).

Soft inquiries can also be generated when you or someone else requests your credit report for non-lending purposes, such as renting an apartment or opening a new cell phone account. And although job applicants aren’t entitled to see their own soft inquiries, employers may still be able to view them when considering candidates.

How Long Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report

In most cases, inquiries can stay on your credit report for up to two years. However, hard inquiries will only impact your credit score for the first year, and then they will fall off your report. So, if you’re looking to improve your credit score, you should focus on other factors besides inquiries.

Hard inquiries

A hard inquiry, also called a hard pull, can stay on your credit report for up to two years. Hard inquiries are generated when you apply for new lines of credit. You may experience a temporary dip in your credit scores whenever you have a hard pull on your report, but the effect is typically minimal and bounces back within a month or so.

If you’re concerned about the inquires on your credit report, you can take steps to remove them. Start by disputing any inaccurate or unfair inquiries with the credit bureau. If that doesn’t work, you can also try asking the creditor to have the inquiry removed. In some cases, they may be willing to do so if you agree to open a new account with them.

Soft inquiries

The majority of inquiries on your credit report will be “soft inquiries” made by businesses that have pulled your report for informational purposes only. Examples of soft inquiries include when an employer checks your report as part of a background check, or when you pull your own report. These types of inquiries do not impact your credit score, and you can usually view them by logging into your credit card or other account online. If you see an inquiry on your report that you don’t recognize, it could be a “hard inquiry” made by a lender without your permission – which can ding your score.