How to remove hard inquiries from your credit report

A hard inquiry is recorded when a lender checks your credit because you applied for something. A soft inquiry — a pre-approval offer, your own score check, an existing lender reviewing your account — does not affect your score at all.

Quick takeaways

Only unauthorized hard inquiries can be disputed off.
Inquiries stay two years but stop counting much sooner.
Unknown inquiries deserve a fraud alert or freeze.

How much they actually cost you

Usually a few points, and only for about a year, though they stay visible for two. Rate shopping for a mortgage, auto loan or student loan inside a short window is generally treated as one inquiry.

Removing unauthorized inquiries

You only have grounds if you did not give permissible purpose — no application, no signature, no account relationship. Dispute it with the bureau and, if a company pulled your file without permission, tell that company in writing to withdraw it.

Repeated inquiries you do not recognize can be an early sign of identity theft. Consider a fraud alert or a freeze at that point.

Keeping new inquiries down

Apply only when you intend to accept, use pre-qualification tools that run soft pulls, and cluster necessary shopping into a two-week window.

Want someone to look at your actual reports?

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