When you make big steps in life, your credit counts. If you are struggling with a low credit score, you can get some help with credit repair in El Paso, Texas. Credit repair services scrutinize complicated financial documents and records to discover what you may miss. For example, fraudulent hard inquiries are more common than you’d think. Credit repair agencies can track down these fraudulent inquiries, apply for their removal, and repair your credit.
Don’t let your finances overwhelm you. To better understand hard inquiry removal services, let’s take a closer look at what a hard inquiry is and what it means for your credit score.
Hard Inquiries: A Breakdown
Credit inquiries evolved when credit scores were invented in 1841 as a way to track and monitor a person’s creditworthiness. There are numerous types of inquiries that can appear on your credit report.
What Is a Credit Inquiry?
A credit inquiry is a record of a lender or creditor requesting your credit information. There are many types of credit inquiries, including hard inquiries, soft inquiries, regular inquiries, and more. Some of these are visible to lenders, while others are only visible to you and do not impact your credit score.
What Is a Hard Inquiry?
Hard inquiries occur when you apply for a loaned amount of money, typically bank loans or credit cards. When you apply for this type of financing, lenders check your credit. This process is often called a hard pull or a hard credit check.
Lenders typically rely on information from one or more of the three main credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) and will request your full credit history from them. If the lender uses an alternative bureau, they may require deeper analysis or rely on different credit scoring methodologies.
How Hard Inquiries Impact Your Credit
Hard inquiries indicate an application for a new credit account or loan. All hard inquiries will appear on your credit report and remain there for two years. According to the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), if you already have good credit, your score could drop by five or fewer points when there is a hard inquiry on your credit. If you have applied for several credit cards or loans, or have a poor credit standing, it can drop as much as ten points.
Luckily, hard inquiries don’t usually make up a large portion of your credit score. Still, removing fraudulent inquiries can improve your score—and those improvements might be just what you need to reach the business or home of your dreams.
What Is a Hard Inquiry Removal Service?
Hard inquiries can be removed from your credit reports if they are proven to be fraudulent. In order to appeal to your credit bureau, you need to thoroughly understand what fraudulent inquiries look like and how to find them.
Is it worth paying someone to fix your credit by removing hard inquiries? Absolutely. Finding inaccurate or fraudulent information on your credit report is tedious work, and challenging if you aren’t familiar with legal and financial terminology. These companies are regulated by the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA), meaning they must be transparent with you about their services and can’t accept payment until their contract is fulfilled. Credit repair services, such as The Phenix Group, work to help you understand and gain control over your credit.
What They Look For
Credit repair services will scour your reports for outdated or fraudulent hard inquiries that negatively impact your score.
Outdated Inquiries
There are nuances to which scores are considered outdated. Most hard inquiries stay on your credit report for two years, but FICO scores don’t factor in hard inquiries more than twelve months old. Credit repairers will be able to spot which hard inquiries are outdated and include them in your dispute.
Accidental Duplicates
There are also situations where hard inquiries should be grouped together as one, rather than listed as individual inquiries. An example is if you are shopping for a new loan with several institutions. In this situation, it is perfectly normal to apply to many lenders at the same time to get the best rates and terms. Your report should reflect each inquiry, but only deduct it as one from your score. Sometimes, creditors miss this and each loan application is accidentally counted.
Fraudulent Inquiries
Fraudulent inquiries can happen if someone with your name was issued a hard inquiry and lenders looked at your credit by mistake. Repair services will make inquiries to check about any inquiries you don’t recognize and could be fraudulent.
Does Disputing Inquiries Affect My Score?
Disputing hard inquiries does not negatively impact your score. It can improve your score if your bureau approves your claim and removes the inquiries from your record.
Moving Forward
A low credit score can be a barrier between you and your dreams. Credit repair services help you navigate financial records and unfamiliar language, and advocate on your behalf–The Phenix Group offers expert services to help you repair your credit, so you can focus on your next steps in life!