You can only remove hard inquiries you did not authorize. Inquiries from applications you actually made are accurate and stay for two years, though they affect your FICO score for only about twelve months and usually by less than five points each. Companies that promise to remove all inquiries are disputing accurate information, which doesn't work and isn't honest.
Hard vs. soft
A hard inquiry happens when a lender pulls your report because you applied for credit. A soft inquiry happens when you check your own credit, a lender pre-screens you, or an employer or landlord reviews you with your permission. Soft inquiries are visible only to you and never affect scores.
How much hard inquiries matter
New credit is about 10 percent of a FICO score, and inquiries are only part of that. One inquiry on a healthy file is a few points and recovers within months. Where they hurt is volume: six card applications in two months reads as risk. Rate shopping for a mortgage or auto loan within a 14- to 45-day window is counted as a single inquiry by FICO, so shopping around for a loan is not the problem people think it is.
What’s disputable
- An inquiry from a company you never applied with.
- A duplicate: the same lender pulling twice for one application.
- An inquiry tied to identity theft. File a report at IdentityTheft.gov; the bureaus must block information resulting from identity theft when you provide the report.
- An inquiry from a “pre-approval” you never authorized to be a hard pull.
How to dispute one
Write to the bureau showing the inquiry, identify it by creditor name and date, state that you did not authorize it, and ask that it be removed. Send a copy of the letter to the creditor and ask them to confirm they have no application from you. If it was identity theft, include the FTC report. The bureau has 30 days.
What not to do
Don’t dispute inquiries from applications you made. The bureau contacts the lender, the lender confirms it, and the inquiry stays. Repeated frivolous disputes can get your future disputes flagged as such. Inquiries are the smallest lever in your file; spend your effort on collections, lates, and utilization.
Perspective
If a company’s pitch leads with “we remove inquiries,” they’re leading with the easiest-sounding, least valuable thing on a report. On most files we work, inquiries aren’t worth a dispute round at all.
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Request a Free ConsultationRead the DIY guide →Related questions
How long do hard inquiries stay on a credit report?
Two years. FICO ignores them after twelve months.
Does checking my own credit count as a hard inquiry?
No. Pulling your own reports at AnnualCreditReport.com or through a monitoring service is a soft inquiry.
Can a lender pull my credit without permission?
A lender needs a permissible purpose under the FCRA, which includes your application or an existing account relationship. A pull with no permissible purpose is a violation and the inquiry is disputable.
Will removing an inquiry raise my score?
Usually by a few points at most. It's rarely the reason a score moves.
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