How to Erase Credit Inquiries
| Special Alert - 06/03/02 The credit bureaus are starting to stop the investigation of disputed inquiries. They are telling people via mail and phone that inquiries are just a "statement of fact". What rubbish! Don't take this lying down. The FCRA says that ANY information which is disputed on your credit report MUST be investigated. If they won't investigate, take their written letter to you as evidence they are breaking the law and file a lawsuit in small claims to collect a slam-dunk $1000. |
Also, read this blog entry on the optimal point in your credit repair efforts to start working on removing inquiries.
Every time you apply for credit and the credit grantor checks your credit report, a credit inquiry is placed on your file. Even if you receive a credit offer in the mail and you respond, your credit will almost certainly be checked and a credit inquiry will be added to your credit report.
Credit inquiries are bad because too many of them can indicate to a
creditor that you're "credit hungry" and may be in financial trouble. Worse yet, the creditor has reason to believe that you received many of the credit lines that are showing as inquiries, and that many of those credit lines have not yet
appeared on your credit report. Too many recent inquiries indicate to a
potential credit grantor that your debt-to-income ratio may be much higher than you say. Most creditors disregard inquiries once they have been on your credit report for six months or more. This may not help your situation if you need credit right away or if you are applying to a creditor who looks at all of your inquiries. You may also want to read our section on how inquiries affect your credit score based on the type of inquiry they are.
All credit inquiries should come off your credit report after two years. If you're not willing to wait, you may take these steps:
Step 1
First, find out which credit inquiries are getting in your way.
Order all three of your credit reports. (See Order Your Credit Reports.) When your reports arrive, look toward the end of your credit report to find the inquiries. Some of the inquiries are only promotional and will not be shown to prospective credit grantors. You need not worry about those. Identify only the inquiries that
are shown to credit grantors. You should recognize some of these as places where you applied for credit, but others may be a complete mystery to you.
Step 2
Find the addresses for each credit inquirer. Your Experian credit report will list addresses for each. Your Trans Union and Equifax reports will not include addresses. Match your Experian with your Trans Union and Equifax reports. You should be able to use the same addresses on the inquirers that are listed on Experian. If some of the inquirers don't show up on Experian but do show up on either Trans Union or Equifax, you will have to
call the credit bureau to get their address. It is almost impossible to get a live body on the telephone at Trans Union, but Equifax has an 800 number listed at the top of their reports. If you have a inquirer on your Trans Union and you
can't reach Trans Union by phone, you might try calling the 800 directory (1-800-555-1212) and request the 800 number for the inquiring creditor.
Once you have collected all of the addresses for each inquiring creditor on each credit report, you are ready for step three.
Step 3
Prepare letters to each inquiring creditor asking them to
remove their inquiry. The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows only
authorized inquiries to appear on the consumer credit report. You must challenge whether the inquiring creditor had proper authorization to pull your credit file.
Our sample letter to remove inquiries can be found here.
Step 4
Some of your creditors may provide documentation that a credit inquiry was authorized by you. Read the authorization that you signed very carefully. If there is any ambiguity, you can write back and argue that the inquirer's authorization form was too complicated and not easily understood by the layman. You can threaten to contact the State Banking Commission and complain about a deceptive and unclear authorization form if they don't remove your inquiry.
Some creditors will try to ignore your challenge. Be sure to send each letter Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested and keep close track of the time that you sent the letter. If the inquiring creditor doesn't respond within about thirty days, you will have ample grounds to call the inquiring creditor and demand some action. At that point, it's almost irrelevant whether or not you authorized the inquiry. Now the issue becomes the creditor's lack of response to a consumer dispute. Be sure to hold your
ground. Demand that the inquiry be removed immediately or you will complain to the State Banking Commission or similar authorities.
Many of your inquiring creditors may simply agree to delete the inquiry as a courtesy or because they cannot (or will not) verify your authorization. That is the goal. Remember, it is not likely that you will need all of your credit inquiries removed -- just enough of them to keep you from being denied credit.
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