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Information on Multiple Credit Report Inquiries

Mark Cappel
UpdatedOct 9, 2007

Who do I contact when I have multiple unwanted queries related to my credit and how should I proceed?

Who do I contact when I have multiple unwanted queries related to my credit and how should I proceed?

Whenever a company pulls a copy of your credit report, the credit bureaus will list an inquiry on your credit report.

You should also check out the wealth of informative credit solutions articles and resource.

Credit inquires fall into two general categories: "hard" inquiries and "soft" inquiries. Hard inquiries, which can negatively impact your credit score, appear when a potential lender checks your credit as a result of your applying for new credit. Soft inquiries appear when a company pulls your credit without your prior authorization, or when you pull your own report. For example, an unsolicited "pre-approval" letter from a credit card company will result in a soft inquiry. Soft inquiries are not disclosed to your potential lenders when they pull your credit report, and they do not affect your credit score. The primary purpose of soft inquiries is to allow you to see who has been reviewing your credit report.

How you should proceed depends on what type of inquiries are appearing on your credit report. If they are soft inquiries, then there is little concern, as these inquiries do not affect your credit score. However, if they are hard inquiries, you may want to review the listings more carefully. As stated above, hard inquiries result from your applying for new credit, not from established creditors pulling your report for review or from unsolicited credit offers. If you find inquiries you think are being improperly reported, you should notify the credit bureaus of the problem. If the inquiries have been reported inaccurately, you should have little difficulty in having the problem corrected.

Three major credit bureaus offer credit reports. If there is something that you want added or removed, you may contact them directly:

To get a hold of your credit report, contact one of these three bureaus or AnnualCreditReport.com. Each credit reporting agency interprets your credit information differently, so you might want to get a report from all three.

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Bill

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