How to Get an Inquiry Removed from Your Credit Report

Your credit report is a record of your credit history. It includes information about your credit accounts, such as credit cards, car loans, and mortgages. It also includes information about your payment history, such as whether you have made your payments on time.

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Find the inquiry on your credit report

The first step is to find the inquiry on your credit report and get the details. Each credit bureau keeps its own records, so you will need to obtain a report from each one if you want to check all three at once. You are entitled to one free report from each agency every year, so this step shouldn’t cost you anything.

If you’d rather not wait for the annual reports, you can order your credit reports at any time for a fee from each of the three agencies:
-Equifax: 1-800-685-1111 or www.equifax.com
-Experian: 1-888-397-3742 or www.experian.com
-TransUnion: 1-800-888-4213 or www.transunion.com

If you find that an inquiry has indeed been added to your report in error, you’ll need to take the next steps to have it removed.

Identify the type of inquiry

In order to have an inquiry removed from your credit report, you must first identify the type of inquiry. If it is a hard inquiry, it will remain on your credit report for two years. If it is a soft inquiry, it will not affect your credit score and will fall off your credit report after one year.

Hard inquiries are usually the result of you applied for new credit, such as a new credit card or a loan. Soft inquiries are usually the result of background checks or when you check your own credit score.

In order to have a hard inquiry removed from your credit report, you must dispute it with the credit bureau that is reporting it. If the bureau finds that the inquiry was in error, they will remove it from your report. If you are unable to have the hard inquiry removed, you can wait for it to fall off your report after two years.

In order to have a soft inquiry removed from your credit report, you can simply write a letter to the credit bureau asking them to remove it. There is no need to dispute soft inquiries, as they do not affect your credit score.

Request an investigation from the credit bureau

If you find an inquiry on your credit report that you don’t recognize, you can request an investigation from the credit bureau. This involves contacting the creditor directly to dispute the inquiry. The creditor will then have 30 days to respond to the dispute. If they can’t verify that the inquiry is legitimate, it will be removed from your credit report.

Wait for the credit bureau to investigate

If you believe an inquiry is incorrect, you can file a dispute with the credit bureau. The bureau will then investigate the inquiry and remove it if they find it to be invalid. This process can take up to 30 days.

Review the results of the investigation

After the credit bureau completes its investigation, it will send you a written report of the results. The report will tell you whether the inquiry was removed or if it will remain on your report.

If the inquiry was legitimate and is being kept on your report, there is not much you can do. But if you find that an inquiry was made without your knowledge or that it is fraudulent, you can take steps to have it removed.

To have an inquiry removed from your credit report, you will need to contact the creditor directly and ask them to remove it. You can also dispute the inquiry with the credit bureau.

If you are successful in having the inquiry removed, be sure to get confirmation in writing from the creditor or credit bureau. This will give you something to fall back on if the inquiry reappears on your report later on.