Posts tagged ‘credit inquiries’

Is it possible to remove credit inquiries from my credit report?

Question by turmy3: Is it possible to remove credit inquiries from my credit report?
Over the course of about three months I went on a desperate auto loan shopping spree. I was trying incredibly hard to get approved under my own name with only a year worth of credit history because I have no willing/able co-signer.

I’ve recieved about 20 inquiries and my credit score dropped over 50 points from the original 730 I had, bringing me from excellent credit to between fair and poor.

Now I know that people usually say that you should stay away from “credit repair” agencies. However, I feel cheated to have these inquires draining on my credit report for the next two years when I’ve been responsible with my credit cards as I don’t have a single late payment and I usually pay off half my debt or more every 2 weeks.

Please advise.

Best answer:

Answer by bdancer222
The fact is that you did make all those applications resulting in that many inquiries. After the first couple turn downs, you should have known your credit wasn’t enough. They do give a reason when they turn you down.

I suppose you could pay one of those repair companies a couple hundred bucks to play their slight of hand and hope the actually get some of those inquiries removed, but you’d be better off just establishing a longer on time payment history. It won’t take 2 years to get back most of those points.

Give your answer to this question below!

What Are Credit Inquiries and How Do They Affect My Credit Report?

A credit inquiry is when a third party, such as a mortgage company or a credit card company, requests a copy of your credit report and/or credit score from any of the three credit bureaus. In fact, they are “inquiring” about your credit worthiness.

Do these inquiries negatively affect your credit report/score? That depends. An occasional inquiry for things like a car, house, or education will not be held against you when determining credit risk.  The ones that can negatively affect you are the inquiries for new credit cards or lines of credit. These typically deduct 5 points from your credit score for each inquiry of this type. The ones listed will usually be only recent ones, within a year or so.

Now, if you have several credit card inquiries in a short amount of time, then that will definitely lower your credit score. Multiple clustered inquiries for credit cards put you in a high risk category for the lender. They will wonder why you are scrambling to get a bunch of spending credit in a short amount of time, and will make their decision accordingly. Other credit inquiries that get clustered, such as an automobile loan, are not held against you. To them it just looks like you are shopping around for the best deal on a car you can get, and every place you go they have to run your credit score/report.

Other companies can request a copy of your credit report without you even knowing, unless you have a security freeze on the account. Usually, debt collection agencies will check your credit report periodically so they can stay up to date on all of your past debts and new ones, as well as any updated personal information. They are not required, by law, to inform you that they will be checking your credit.

If you have multiple inquiries on your credit report, you should write to the credit bureau and request that they be removed because you never gave permission to any of the people listed. You will almost always get some of them removed, and the rest will remain, but it is worth the effort. Building and/or fixing your credit is like saving pennies. Each penny by itself is not worth much, but as time passes, the pennies will eventually add up to a large amount of money. Every small step you take will only add to your overall score.