Hard Inquiries vs. Soft Inquiries
Every time someone accesses your credit report, that access is recorded. But not all credit checks are created equal.
A soft inquiry occurs when you check your own credit, when a lender pre-screens you for an offer, or when an employer checks your background. Soft inquiries are visible only to you and have zero impact on your credit score.
A hard inquiry occurs when you apply for credit — a credit card, a mortgage, a car loan, a personal loan, or sometimes a new utility account or apartment rental. Hard inquiries are visible to other lenders and can affect your credit score. Most hard inquiries lower your score by a few points and remain on your report for two years, though their scoring impact fades after about 12 months. Hard inquiries are one of the five factors that make up your credit score, accounting for about 10%.
When Hard Inquiries Can Be Disputed
Here's the key distinction: you can only dispute a hard inquiry if it was made without your authorization. If you applied for a credit card and the bank ran your credit, that's a legitimate hard inquiry — you authorized it when you submitted your application. You cannot dispute that, even if you were denied.
However, if you see a hard inquiry from a company you've never heard of or never applied to, that is an unauthorized inquiry. Unauthorized hard inquiries can happen because of:
- Identity theft. Someone used your information to apply for credit in your name.
- Account reviews disguised as applications. Some companies pull a hard inquiry for account reviews or credit limit increases when they should only use a soft pull.
- Dealer shopping. Auto dealers sometimes send your application to multiple lenders simultaneously, resulting in several inquiries. Under FCRA rules, multiple auto loan or mortgage inquiries within a 14-45 day window (depending on the scoring model) are treated as a single inquiry for scoring purposes — but they still appear individually on your report.
- Errors. Bureau data entry mistakes can cause an inquiry to appear on the wrong person's report.
How to Identify Unauthorized Inquiries
Review the inquiries section of your credit report. For each hard inquiry, you'll see the name of the company and the date. Ask yourself: Did I apply for credit with this company on or around that date? If the answer is no and you don't recognize the company, it may be unauthorized.
Sometimes the company name shown won't match what you expect. A bank may list under a parent company name, or a store card might show the issuing bank rather than the retailer. Do a quick search of the company name before assuming an inquiry is fraudulent.
How to Remove an Unauthorized Hard Inquiry
Step 1: Dispute with the credit bureau. File a dispute with the bureau showing the unauthorized inquiry. Explain that you did not authorize this inquiry and do not recognize the creditor. Include a copy of your ID.
Step 2: Contact the company directly. Send a letter to the company that pulled your credit, informing them that the inquiry was unauthorized and requesting that they contact the bureau to have it removed. Some companies will act quickly on a written request.
Step 3: File a fraud alert or police report if needed. If you believe the inquiry is part of identity theft, place a fraud alert on your credit reports (free, lasts one year) and consider filing an identity theft report with the FTC at IdentityTheft.gov. An FTC identity theft report can support your dispute. Identity theft can cause a range of errors across your credit report beyond just unauthorized inquiries.
What to Expect
Legitimate disputes of unauthorized inquiries are often resolved in your favor because companies have limited ability to verify that an application was actually submitted. Even one or two removed inquiries can modestly improve your score and, more importantly, alert you to potential fraud activity before it gets worse.
Keep in mind: if the inquiry was authorized, no dispute process will remove it. The strategy of disputing all hard inquiries regardless of authorization is ineffective and can waste your dispute capital.