How to Remove Hard Inquiries From Your Credit Report
An inquiry you did not authorize has to come off. An inquiry from an application you made stays two years, and no service can change that. The honest news is that inquiries are the smallest part of your score, so this is rarely the thing holding you back.
If new credit keeps getting denied, a free look at your debt options takes about two minutes.
Get My Free Debt AssessmentFive Steps
1. List every inquiry on all three reports
Pull your reports free at AnnualCreditReport.com. Each bureau lists inquiries separately, so an application may show on one and not the others. Write down the company name and the date next to each one.
2. Sort them into applied, prescreened, and unknown
If you applied for a card, loan, or lease, that inquiry is legitimate. Promotional offers and account reviews are soft inquiries that do not count. What is left, companies you do not recognize and never applied to, is what you go after.
3. Check the unknown ones before you dispute
Dealership financing, insurance quotes, apartment applications, and some phone or utility signups all pull credit under names you may not recognize, and lenders often shop your application to several banks. Search the company name first so you are not disputing something you agreed to.
4. Dispute the ones that should not be there
Write each bureau that shows the inquiry, identify it by name and date, state that you never applied and never gave permission, and ask for removal. Send the same letter to the company that pulled your file. The bureau generally answers within 30 days.
5. If it was identity theft, lock things down
File a report at IdentityTheft.gov, add a fraud alert or a freeze at all three bureaus, and check for new accounts you did not open. An unauthorized inquiry is often the first sign of something larger.
Which Inquiries Come Off and Which Do Not
Can be removed
- Someone applied for credit using your identity
- A company pulled your file with no permissible purpose
- The same application shows two or three times
- The inquiry is older than two years and still listed
- You withdrew permission before the pull
Stays for two years
- A credit card or loan you applied for, even if you were denied
- An application you canceled after the credit pull
- A dealership sending your application to several lenders
- A card you opened and closed the same month
For the wording and the process, use our credit report dispute guide and sample letters. Your rights under the FCRA cover who is allowed to look at your file in the first place.
Keep Inquiries in Perspective
- Inquiries are the smallest factor in common scoring models.
- Most models only look at inquiries from the past 12 months.
- Mortgage, auto, and student loan shopping in a short window usually counts as one inquiry.
- Checking your own credit is a soft pull and never costs you points.
- If your score is low, late payments, collections, and high balances are almost always the real reason.
Do This Instead of Chasing Inquiries
If you are trying to raise a score before a mortgage or car loan, put your effort where the points are. Pay every bill on time, get card balances down toward 30 percent of the limit or lower, leave old accounts open, and stop applying for new credit for a few months before you need the loan.
Our guide to improving your credit score walks through those in order, and what credit repair companies can and cannot do explains why inquiry removal packages are usually a bad buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can hard inquiries be removed from my credit report?
Only if the inquiry should not be there. If a company pulled your credit without a permissible purpose, or someone applied for credit in your name, the bureau has to remove it. An inquiry from an application you actually made stays for two years, and nobody can legally get it deleted early.
How much do hard inquiries hurt my score?
Usually very little. Most scoring models treat one inquiry as a small number of points, and the effect fades within a few months even though the inquiry itself is listed for two years. Most models only count inquiries from the last 12 months at all.
What is the difference between a hard and a soft inquiry?
A hard inquiry happens when you apply for credit and a lender checks your file to make a decision. A soft inquiry happens when you check your own credit, when a card issuer prescreens you for an offer, or when an existing creditor reviews your account. Soft inquiries never affect your score and other lenders cannot see them.
Does rate shopping for a mortgage or car loan hurt me?
Not the way people fear. Scoring models group similar loan inquiries made in a short window and count them as one, so shopping several mortgage or auto lenders in a couple of weeks behaves like a single application. Credit card applications are not grouped that way.
How do I dispute an inquiry I did not authorize?
Write to each bureau showing the inquiry, say you never applied and never gave permission, and ask for removal. Send the same letter to the company that pulled your file. If it came from someone using your identity, file a report at IdentityTheft.gov and consider a freeze on all three bureaus.
Is it worth paying a company to remove inquiries?
No. Inquiries are the smallest piece of a credit score, you can dispute the wrong ones yourself for free, and the accurate ones cannot be removed by anyone. Any company that sells inquiry removal packages is charging for something you can do in an afternoon or that will not happen at all.
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Sources
- CFPB. What is a credit inquiry?(opens in a new tab)
- CFPB. Disputing errors on your credit report(opens in a new tab)
- Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681b (permissible purposes)(opens in a new tab)
- FTC. Identity theft recovery steps(opens in a new tab)
- FTC. Fixing your credit FAQs(opens in a new tab)
Federal rules are cited directly. State law varies, so state-specific timelines and exemptions should be confirmed with your state's statutes or a local attorney.