How Long Do Credit Inquiries Stay on Your Report?

If you’re looking to improve your credit score, you may be wondering how long credit inquiries stay on your report. The answer is that it depends on the type of inquiry. Here’s what you need to know.

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Introduction

Consumers often ask “how long do credit inquiries stay on your credit report?” Credit inquiries are added to the credit report at the end of the month in which they are initiated, and remain on the report for two years. So, if you’re shopping for a car loan at five dealerships in one day, five inquiries will appear on your report within days or weeks from each other. Even though multiple inquiries may be daunting to see, shoppers should know that their FICO score is not impacted by multiple mortgage, auto or student loan inquiries made within 45 days of each other.

What is a credit inquiry?

A credit inquiry is a record of the times a lender has accessed your credit report. There are two types of inquiries- hard inquiries and soft inquiries. Hard inquiries are made when you apply for new credit and can negatively impact your credit score. Soft inquiries are made when you check your own credit or when a financial institution checks your credit for pre-approval of an offer. Soft inquiries do not have an effect on your score.

How long do credit inquiries stay on your report?

In general, credit inquiries remain on your report for two years. Inquiries are noted on your report as request for your credit history. They show up when companies check your credit report before extending you credit or when you check your own credit score. A hard inquiry occurs when you give a lender permission to pull your report in order to make a lending decision. These can happen when you apply for a mortgage, auto loan, or new credit card and is used to determine if you’re a good risk for the lender. Too many hard inquiries in a short period of time can have an adverse effect on your score.

Credit inquiries stay on your report for 24 months, but their impact on your score diminishes over time. The more recent the inquiry, the greater it impacts your score—for about one year from the day it appears on your report. After that, its effect decreases incrementally each month until after two years it has no effect at all.

How do credit inquiries affect your credit score?

Each time you apply for credit, a hard inquiry is placed on your credit report. Hard inquiries can negatively affect your credit score, and stay on your report for up to two years.

If you’re shopping for a loan or credit card, multiple inquiries from lenders within a short period of time can hurt your score. But if you’re merely rate shopping, the impact of multiple inquiries will be lessened as long as they’re all made within a 45-day period.

How to remove credit inquiries from your report

Credit inquiries remain on your report for two years from the date of the inquiry. However, they will only affect your credit scores for the first 12 months. After that, their impact will lessen and eventually fade away completely.

If you want to remove credit inquiries from your report sooner than two years, you can do so by dispute them with the credit bureau. If the credit bureau finds that the inquiry is inaccurate or unauthorized, they will remove it from your report.

Conclusion

From our research, we’ve found that credit inquiries can stay on your credit report for up to two years. However, many inquiries will only impact your score for the first year (or 12 months). This is because FICO® and other credit scoring models place greater emphasis on more recent credit activity. So, if you have a lot of recent inquiries, they could have a bigger effect on your score than older ones.