Credit Inquiries

There are three credit bureaus in USA that maintain credit scores; they are Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. When one finds out that their credit scores are bad they should get copy of their credit report from all companies and do a comparison to find out the reasons for a bad credit score. There are two types of credit inquires that are made one are termed as ‘soft pulls’ and the other as ‘hard pulls’. Soft pulls are when a credit bureau sells similar type of data to advertising companies like excellent rating home owners, a person gets his or her credit rating and the third is that with a person’s permission a credit counselor gets the credit score. Employers can also ask for a credit score and these inquiries are also not counted and are taken as soft pulls. Soft pulls do not have any adverse affect on a person’s credit score. Hard pulls are those which are made by lenders or prospective lenders with the permission of the person. However this is where the problem comes in that if a person has given permission to too many lenders to check their credit score the credit score will be affected.

To avoid credit inquiries one should look at their credit reports and where they find that any unauthorized credit inquiries have been made on their credit scores they should immediately contact these companies and ask them to remove their credit inquiries. One must also inform the credit bureau the names of the lenders whom they have authorized to make credit inquiries. Letter to remove inquiries from credit reports must be sent to the lenders who made the inquiries. These letters should not be ignored and if one does not receive a response from the lenders who have made unauthorized inquires they should be followed up with a letter that requires a reply. Leaving hard pull inquires on a credit report adversely affects a person’s credit rating and their ability to get a car or mortgage loan. So any unauthorized inquires should be actively followed up and removed so that one’s credit rating is not affected adversely. If a lender states that the credit inquiry was authorized by the person make sure to get a copy of the authorization and check if the authorization is a valid or an ambiguous authorization. All mortgage credit inquiries should be properly authorized by the person who is shopping for a mortgage. It is advisable to try and get removed inquiries from credit report and to remove inquiries from your credit report one needs to actively pursue the lenders who have made the inquiries and get them to remove them. One must also inform the credit bureaus of any allowed credit inquiry.

Following up with credit card companies and other lenders who have made credit inquiries is not easy and by calling them up on the phone and making a request may be ignored. One must do all requests for removal of credit inquiries by registered reply requested mail. If there are any unauthorized requests that have been made by lenders these must be reported to the credit reporting bureaus and to all three of them, Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. The reason for this is that just reporting to one may make them take a note of it but the other two would not have any information regarding a person’s request so would not update their records.

When allowing lenders to make credit inquiries make sure to ask them to get a due written authorization and not a verbal authorization. Giving out personal information like one’s Social Security Number can cause unauthorized inquiries being made from credit bureaus. Only Experian will list the names and addresses of the lenders who have made the enquiries the other two credit bureaus do not so one should check to ascertain that the inquiries that have been made on all three credit reporting agencies have come from the same source.