How to Dispute a Hard Inquiry on Your Credit Report

A hard inquiry on your credit report is the kind of credit inquiry that happens when you apply for credit. It can cause a small, temporary drop in your credit score. You can't remove hard inquiries unless they are fraudulent, but even legitimate hard inquiries don't ding your credit score too much.

Other things, namely, paying bills on time and using less than 30% of your credit limits, influence your credit score more than hard inquiries do.

» MORE: How long do hard inquiries stay on your credit report?

If you're curious about hard inquiries on your credit report and where they came from, you can request free credit reports from the three major credit bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com.

On your credit report, look over the section labeled “inquiries.” You’re concerned with hard inquiries. Soft inquiries, such as when you check your own credit or a marketer screens you for a pre-approved offer, don’t affect your score.

When you look at your credit report you might see inquires from entities such as:

• Credit card issuers and lenders, which check your credit reports to gauge risk when you apply.

• Utilities, which use them to decide whether to charge you a deposit.

• Companies, which may check your credit standing so they can market products to you.

• Potential landlords and employers, who may look to see how reliable you are.

Each credit bureau or website presents information in its own way, but all will label any inquiries that might affect your score. If you don’t recognize something, it’s worth investigating. Reasons you might not recognize the entry range from benign to worrisome:

• A store credit card you applied for may be issued through a financial institution with a different name.

• Your car loan application may have gone to multiple lenders (a single authorization at a dealership can sometimes result in several inquiries).

• Debt collectors are allowed to check credit under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, although most often these are soft inquiries.

• You may have fallen victim to identity theft and someone is opening fraudulent accounts in your name.

» MORE: How to use Annual Credit Report

You can't remove a legitimate hard inquiry, but if you can’t trace the reason for a hard inquiry, or you believe it was done without your consent, you can dispute it online. If the credit bureau can’t confirm it as a legitimate inquiry, it’s required to remove it. Contact each credit bureau individually:

• How to dispute your Equifax credit report

• How to dispute your Experian credit report

• How to dispute your TransUnion credit report

Some companies say they can remove even legitimate inquiries from your report — for a fee — but NerdWallet advises against using them. As long as you’re not continuing to pile up applications, time will repair any damage to your credit.

If you see an unknown inquiry, you can have a fraud alert added to your credit reports, which flags applications in your name as requiring extra scrutiny. Alert any one credit reporting agency; it will share information with the other two.

Or, for the best protection, simply freeze your credit with all three bureaus to stop anyone from opening new credit in your name.