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Your credit score can be affected in many ways, and one of them is credit inquiries. If you recently got a hard inquiry on your credit report, definitely you are feeling trouble and think about that HOW TO REMOVE HARD INQUIRY. And if you are thinking about that, so it is a very positive step that at least you are thinking about because hard inquiry badly affects your credit score, which seems like a nightmare.
Credit inquiries happen for various reasons. Every time it is not compulsory that they are harmful. They make it possible that you got to allow for new lends or credit cards as well as check your credit score.
Always remember that every credit inquiries are not harmful to your credit score. Now, we will discuss some types of credit inquiries that are present right now and how you can secure your credit score from that. But because we are talking about hard inquiry, before talking about any other type of inquiry first, we should know that what is a hard inquiry.
Suggested Read: Foundations in Personal Finance
What Is a Hard Inquiry?
When you apply for a lend, card, or any other financing option, the lenders examine your credit history. The summary of your experience of borrowing credit helps them to guess your integrity. Your request/application allows access to one or more reports. At that time, a hard inquiry appears.
The term hard inquiry shows its nature that how much it’s being harmful to your credit score. More than one application, or you can say that multiple applications in very little time being can be affecting your credit status. As you know that the creditors are anxious for cash, lenders/ creditors start to doubt your creditworthiness. Cut short as a result, they are reluctant to extend credit or offer below interest rates.
On the other side, there is a soft inquiry. It is not associated with new financing. You can get this through an example that only the recruiter, landlord, insurance company, or yourself can access your records. When the creditors produce a pre-approved offer, the lenders leave the soft inquiry. These types of information are harmless, and in the view of organizations, it affects zero on your eligibility.
Now, we are going to start a comparison between both of them.
Comparison b/w Hard Inquiry And Soft Inquiry
Let’s take a review of what we had discussed that. There are two types of inquiries one is a hard inquiry, and the second is a soft inquiry. We also learned that the hard inquiry is harmful and can negatively affect your credit score, while on the other hand, soft inquiries are not impacting negatively.
The (additional) thing is that we can also say these terms like hard pulls and soft pulls. As we addressed above, If we talk about soft inquiry, it able to happen for various reasons, for example, when you are checking your credit score and when the bank is trying to pre-approve you for a credit card.
Meanwhile, when any company like credit card companies and loan provider companies request a copy of your consumer from one of the three bureaus to give an answer to your application at that time, a hard inquiry appears.
The main difference between a hard inquiry and a soft inquiry is that how did they generate. If you filed an application for the line of credit and didn’t check just to see that if you could be pre-approved. In that case, the company will charge hard inquiry/hard pull. Then, on the other hand, if you didn’t apply for something, then the associated inquiry will conduct only a soft inquiry.
Hard Inquiry (How Much It Is Harmful to Credit Score & How Can Get Rid of It)
How much it takes on your credit report and the harms that it gifts to your credit report based on few things. To begin, having more than one hard inquiry is more dangerous and harmful for those who have a short credit history compared to those who have a long credit history.
Therefore, If you are not using credit for a very long time and you have only a few accounts, you have to avoid multiple hard inquiries at once. As far as inquiries are concerned that how much it affects your credit score. After research, we find that multiple hard inquiries can harm your credit score badly. But the question arises that how much? The is that it can deduct a maximum of five points. But according to FICO, a single hard inquiry cannot do anything with your credit score. This means there is no need to feel fear from a single hard inquiry.
When we talk about inquiries, you should know that both hard and soft inquiries will appear on your credit for two years from the date of inquiry. If we talk about hard inquiry, it will deduct, or you can say that it affects your credit score only for the first year. Meanwhile, both inquiries stay on your credit report for some time. We had discussed hard and soft credit inquiries, but the question arises as to why it would affect your credit score. Let’s talk about it what’s the matter is this.
Hard Inquiry Hits Your Credit Score Badly. Why?

How inquiry appears when you apply for any new type of credit, It doesn’t matter you are approved for it or not. This credit can be in the form of a loan. Like we can talk about the mortgage and car on loan; credit card or even just a credit; increases for an existing card. While the hard inquiry is a necessary part of being approved for credit, But multiple hard inquiries in a little time being can harm your credit score badly. Because banks often see you as a huge risk. If you are recently tried to open new lines of credit. Which they determine on a number of hard pulls/hard inquiries. The main reason the credit bureaus track your hard inquiry/hard pull is because of your behavior and your intention. By mean it, they judge whether you know that how to manage your money makes it simple for them to know that when you are applying for finance and how frequently. If you got too many hard inquiries in a very short period, It means that you apply for credit or insurance from several organizations that provide financing services.
To Get Rid Of Multiple Hard Inquiries. How?
After reading it, if you are thinking that it is very difficult and worried about the next time to file a loan request or sent an application for a credit card, always keep in your mind that every problem has a solution and the solution of your problem is the two major points which you have to remember every single time while sending an application for a credit card, loan, insurance, or any other related type if exists.
- Without your information, financial institutions can’t make a hard inquiry
- Credit agency knows the significance of being able to shop around
Now we know that it is not that simple to affect your credit score by yard inquiry. Because hard inquiry can only appear when you applied for credit and whatever we addressed above. But the company from which you applied cannot conduct hard inquiry without gain your permission. On the other hand, if we talk about the second bullet. You have to know that there are many different credit score models that provide several deduplication windows or time periods that allow you to shop around without damaging your credit score with too many hard inquiries/hard pulls.
How To Remove It
Legal inquiries can’t be removed from anyone, even not through the credit repair companies at all. The inquiries which can be removed are only incorrect inquiries. This means if you’ll get any hard inquiry and you have a solid belief that it is inaccurate, so you have some basic points to remove it:
- Remove it on your own.
- Remove it with the help of a credit repair company.
- Leave it at that (means wait for 2 years).
Remove It On Your Own
First Way:
If you want to remove it on your own, it is not that much difficult. You can easily do that. What do you have to do? You can show your incorrect hard inquiries to credit bureaus. The online dispute is acceptable in the view of credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), But if you want to write a letter to TransUnion, You can do that, but your stamps are probably better saved for other things.
Second Way:
To remove the inaccurate hard inquiry as soon as possible so you can contact with FICO bureau and information-providing sectors. They are both required by law to correct the faults. What happened if you didn’t get the answer from the credit reporting agencies?
You can expect an answer from credit agencies with 30 days. But if you don’t get the answer from them, but you have a strong belief that you are on the right path and your dispute is legal. In that case, you can ask the credit bureau to attach the statement of your dispute with your future credit reports. This will inform your creditors that you are facing trouble with wrong information about hard inquiries, and you strongly believe that those hard inquiries are incorrect.
Cautions About Credit Repair Companies
Remove hard inquiries from your credit report by means of working with credit repair companies just because to save time. In your, it may be smart work, but in reality, it isn’t because of the thing which you can do on your own. So why are you wasting a big amount of money just to save your time? But if you feel confident with credit repair companies, you can do it with them.
You can opt for Milestone Gold Card that doesn’t require perfect credit history to start your journey without worrying about the credit repair, if this is your need.