How To Delete Inquiries On Your Credit Report

How To Delete Inquiries On Your Credit Report

Before we answer the question - how do you delete inquiries on a credit report, I'll discuss what inquiries are. First of all an inquiry means that someone took a look at your credit report. Your credit report is used by creditors and lenders to decide whether or not they will grant you credit.  They are used by insurance companies to decide whether or not they will cover you with an insurance policy and they will take a look at your credit report, an inquiry, in order to come to a decision.

Credit reports are used by landlords if you submit an application to rent an apartment or house. They ask you for your social security information, birth date and other information in order to check your credit report and your credit rating or FICO score and this is also an inquiry. Get Equifax Score Watch Now!

Another inquiry could be from your employer or anyone you have submitted a resume to but they can only take a look at your credit report with your written authorization.

An inquiry could also come in the form of unsolicited offers for credit, such as credit cards offers or home equity loan offers. These can come in the mail and are also called "prescreening."

If you get too many inquiries, then creditors may consider this negative because it could mean you are attempting to get more credit than you can handle.

You can prevent unsolicited credit card offers in the future from all three of the major credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian by calling (888) 567-8688 and asking them to remove your name from these credit reporting agencies.

So How Do You Delete Inquiries On A Credit Report?

Unauthorized inquiries: Make sure to watch for any unauthorized inquiries because thieves may have requested credit in your name.  They may be pretending they're a legitimate business or company that has a legal right to access your credit report. You can easily get these removed by writing a letter with documentation and an explanation.

And now how to go about deleting or removing other inquiries from your credit report. There are two kinds of inquiries. There are "soft" inquiries and "hard" inquiries.  "Soft" inquiries will not affect your FICO score. It's only viewed by you and does not impact your credit score. When you request a copy of your credit report you will be noted as an inquiry, a "soft" inquiry. Any of the creditors you have now can take a look at your credit report during your association with them and these are "soft" inquiries also.

"Hard" inquiries do affect your credit report and FICO score. When you apply for credit whether it's for credit cards or an auto loan for example, this will reflect on your credit score. Lenders are concerned that you have too much outstanding credit now and only so much income. They want to be assured you'll have no problem paying it back.

These inquiries will expire naturally in two years.  You may not be able to remove them before that if they're correct.  If there are any inquiries that you have not authorized you can get them deleted by writing a letter to the credit bureaus or credit reporting agencies that listed them.

The exception to the above is that if you have two inquiries from the same source you may be able to get them merged so that one is deleted. For example if you applied for a credit card and it was approved, you may be listed twice, first as the applicant and then after approval.

Inquiries that have been on your credit report for more than six months are usually not taken into account when creditors or lenders consider granting credit or loans. So if your concern is for an inquiry that is more than six months old it may not be a concern at all.

So the above examples will answer the question - how do you delete inquiries on a credit report - if they can be removed or repaired. If not, time will remove them  automatically.  In any case, you should write a letter to the credit reporting agencies to fix your credit history for any and all inquiries that are incorrect. From time to time laws change, so keep up to date on the ever-changing laws that may change this. With the downturn in the economy laws may make it easier to remove or delete inquiries from your credit report. Stay abreast of the laws affecting your credit report - these will be reported on credit report websites. Get Equifax Score Watch Now!   

copyright©2008  Helen Hecker All rights reserved. No permission is given to copy or reproduce this article in any way or in any form.