How to Remove Credit Bureau Inquiries

A credit inquiry is a notation on the bottom of your credit report. Each time you apply for credit, an inquiry appears on your report. Inquiries also appear when a current creditor reviews your report as part of an annual review or some other reason. Each time you order your credit report, review the list of companies looking at your credit.

Types of Inquiries

There are two types of credit inquiries. The credit bureau adds so-called "hard" credit inquiries when you apply for credit, and adds "soft" credit inquiries when one of your current creditors requests a copy of your report. Most credit agreements give creditors a right to review your report periodically. Soft inquiries also occur when credit card companies and other creditors randomly review reports for marketing purposes. MSN Money reports that an excessive number of hard inquiries can damage your credit score because creditors may fear you are loading up on more credit than you can afford. Soft inquiries do not affect your score.

Seeing Your Inquiries

It's easy to view all of the hard and soft inquiries on your credit report. You can obtain free copies of your report from AnnualCreditReport.com. The website, authorized by the Federal Trade Commission, offers free credit reports under the terms of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Visit the website to view and print your report (see Resources). Credit inquiries will list together at the bottom.

Challenging Entries

The credit bureaus can only remove hard credit inquiries that you did not authorize, according to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Madigan says you must correspond directly with creditors to have the hard inquiries removed, and the credit bureau will not remove them unless asked to do so by the creditor. Challenge inquiries by writing letters to the respective creditors. In your letter, list your name, address and Social Security number. Tell the creditor you did not authorize the credit inquiry and that you want it removed within 30 days.

Follow-up

Send a second letter to the creditor if you do not receive a response within 30 days. After 60 days consider having a consumer protection attorney send the creditor a third letter.