With years of experience and a passion for helping clients achieve their financial goals, our team is committed to guiding you on your journey to credit recovery and financial success.
Reviewed By:
Ashley Davison
Ashley Davison
Editor
Ashley is currently the Chief Compliance Officer for Credit Saint, previously the Chief Operating Officer. Ashley got into the Financial world by working as a Logistics Coordinator at Ernst & Young. Coming from a previous career in education, she is eager to teach the world every...
Credit inquiries are a normal part of borrowing — but unauthorized or excessive ones can weigh on a credit score.
Knowing the difference between hard and soft inquiries, and how to challenge the ones that shouldn’t be there, is the first step to protecting a credit file.
Every time a company pulls a credit report, a record of that check is added to the file. Most are routine. Some are not. When an inquiry is unauthorized, inaccurate, or tied to identity theft, it can drag down a credit score for months — and removing it is possible under federal law. Credit Saint reviews credit reports across all three bureaus and, with client authorization, may challenge entries that don’t accurately reflect a person’s credit history.
Key Takeaways
The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book (2024) recorded 449,032 credit card identity theft reports — the top identity theft category — many of which can surface as unauthorized hard inquiries on a credit report.
Hard inquiries stay on a credit report for two years and may impact FICO scores for up to 12 months and VantageScore scores for up to 24 months.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives consumers the right to dispute unauthorized or inaccurate inquiries with both the credit bureaus and the creditor that pulled the report.
Credit Saint can review a full credit report across Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, and may challenge inquiries and other entries that appear inaccurate or unauthorized.
A credit inquiry is a record of any time a company or person requests a copy of a credit report. The three major U.S. credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — log each of these requests on the corresponding report. Inquiries fall into two categories: hard inquiries (sometimes called hard pulls) and soft inquiries (soft pulls).
The difference matters because only one of the two can actually influence a credit score.
Hard Credit Inquiries
A hard inquiry happens when a lender checks credit for a lending decision — typically after someone applies for a credit card, mortgage, auto loan, or personal loan. Hard inquiries can temporarily reduce a credit score by a few points and stay on a report for two years. Because many creditors pull only one of the three bureaus’ reports, it’s common for a hard inquiry to appear on just one report rather than all three.
Soft Credit Inquiries
A soft inquiry is a record of a credit check made for a non-lending reason. Common examples include:
Checking a personal credit report through a bureau or a credit monitoring service
A current creditor reviewing an existing account
An employer (or potential employer) running a credit check
Submitting a pre-approval or pre-qualification before a formal application
Receiving a firm offer of credit or insurance — such as a pre-screened mailer for a credit card or loan
A credit file may carry many soft inquiries, but they never impact credit scores and generally don’t appear on the version of a credit report that most creditors receive.
Hard vs. Soft Credit Inquiries
Hard Inquiries
Soft Inquiries
Impacts credit scores
Potentially
Never
Happens when
Credit is checked for a lending decision
Credit is checked for a non-lending reason
Requires permission
Yes
Sometimes
Stays on report for
2 years
2 years
Impacts scores for
Up to 12 months (FICO) / 24 months (VantageScore)
No score impact
How Credit Inquiries Can Affect a Credit Score
When a hard inquiry does hurt a credit score, the exact impact depends on the full credit profile. A single new hard inquiry often drops a score by roughly 3 to 10 points. Scores generally recover to their pre-inquiry level within a few months, as long as no new negative information is added.
Multiple hard inquiries in a short window can lead to larger drops, since someone applying for several new accounts at once may represent higher risk. However, credit scoring models also recognize that shopping for the best rate isn’t the same as credit-seeking desperation.
FICO and VantageScore — the two main U.S. credit scoring companies — handle rate shopping slightly differently:
VantageScore deduplication: multiple inquiries from credit applications (including credit cards) within a 14-day window count as a single hard inquiry.
FICO deduplication: multiple hard inquiries for student loans, auto loans, and mortgages within a 14- to 45-day window (depending on the FICO version) count as one inquiry.
FICO buffer: inquiries from the previous 30 days for student, auto, and mortgage loans don’t impact FICO scores at all.
In practice, this means rate shopping for an auto loan, mortgage, or student loan through several lenders typically won’t result in a bigger score hit than a single application — even if the credit report shows a flurry of new hard inquiries.
How to Remove Credit Inquiries from a Credit Report
An inquiry can end up on a credit report for reasons that don’t belong there — including identity theft or a creditor pulling a report without a permissible purpose. The FTC’s 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book logged 449,032 credit card identity theft reports in 2024 — making credit card fraud the top identity theft category reported to the agency. Many of those cases can surface as unauthorized hard inquiries on a credit file.
Here are the main paths to challenge an inquiry:
Review for accuracy. Pull credit reports from all three major bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — and confirm that every hard inquiry was authorized.
Dispute unauthorized inquiries. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) grants consumers the right to dispute inaccurate information on a credit report. A written dispute can be sent to the credit bureau and to the company that made the inquiry, explaining that the check was not authorized.
Request a goodwill removal. Even if the inquiry was legitimate, the creditor can be contacted directly with a polite request to remove the inquiry as a goodwill gesture.
Let it expire. Hard inquiries typically impact FICO scores for up to 12 months and fall off the report entirely after two years. If an inquiry is close to expiring, waiting it out may be the simplest option.
Disputing an Inquiry With the Credit Bureau
A dispute can be submitted directly to a credit bureau by mail, phone, or online. Once filed, the bureau generally has 30 days to investigate. The bureau contacts the creditor that pulled the report and attempts to verify the creditor had the right to do so.
The bureau then sends a written response with the result. It may determine the inquiry was accurate and leave the report unchanged, or it may find an error and either correct or delete the inquiry. Because each bureau maintains its own database, separate disputes may need to be filed with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Disputing an Inquiry With the Creditor
A dispute can also (or instead) be filed directly with the creditor that ran the credit check. If the credit check isn’t remembered or authorized, the creditor should be able to produce a copy or recording of the application showing permission was given. If the creditor can’t verify authorization, a request can be made to have the bureaus remove the unauthorized hard inquiry.
A hard inquiry shouldn’t be disputed when permission was actually given — that’s a legitimate record of the application. And if the inquiry led to an open account, claiming the inquiry was unauthorized may prompt the creditor to close the account under suspicion of fraud.
Consider Professional Help
Identifying which inquiries are legitimate isn’t always simple. The name shown on a credit report may not match the consumer-facing brand, and some unauthorized inquiries are easy to overlook. Professional credit restoration specialists review credit reports regularly and can often spot when something looks off.
Credit Saint works with clients to review credit reports across all three bureaus, discuss specific situations, and — with authorization — challenge inquiries and other entries that appear inaccurate or unauthorized. We handle every step of the dispute process, so clients don’t have to manage the back-and-forth with bureaus and creditors alone. We’ve worked with more than 250,000 Americans since 2007, and we’ve got this.
How to Help Prevent Unauthorized Credit Inquiries
Because hard inquiries stem from new credit applications, limiting new applications is the most direct way to control how many hard inquiries are added to a credit file. But some inquiries happen without permission — either from a creditor pulling a report inappropriately or from someone using stolen information to apply for credit.
A few protective steps can help:
Freeze credit reports at each bureau. A credit freeze — a free service at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — blocks new creditors from accessing a credit report until the freeze is lifted.
Place a fraud alert. A fraud alert tells lenders to verify identity before opening new accounts. It’s free and can be placed through any one of the three bureaus.
Monitor all three credit reports. Because creditors don’t always report to all three bureaus, checking each one regularly — and pulling all three reports — helps catch inquiries that appear on only one.
If inaccurate items or unauthorized inquiries are affecting a credit score, Credit Saint’s team may be able to help. We handle every step of the review and dispute process across all three bureaus. Start with a free credit consultation and find out what options may be available for a specific credit file.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hard inquiries remain on a credit report for two years. FICO generally stops factoring them into scores after 12 months, while VantageScore may consider them for up to 24 months.
No. Soft inquiries — such as checking a personal credit report, pre-qualification pulls, or employer checks — never impact a credit score, and most don’t appear on the version of the report lenders see.
An unauthorized or inaccurate hard inquiry can be disputed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act with both the credit bureau and the creditor that made the inquiry. Legitimate hard inquiries generally cannot be removed before they naturally expire after two years, though a creditor may sometimes agree to a goodwill removal.
A single hard inquiry typically reduces a credit score by roughly 3 to 10 points, depending on the overall credit profile. Scores generally recover within a few months if no new negative information is added.
For mortgages, auto loans, and student loans, FICO groups multiple inquiries made within a 14- to 45-day window (depending on the FICO version) into a single inquiry. VantageScore applies a 14-day window across most types of credit applications, including credit cards.
A credit freeze blocks most new creditors from accessing a credit report until the freeze is lifted, which can help prevent unauthorized hard inquiries from identity theft. It’s free to place and lift at each of the three major bureaus.
Ready to take the next step?Start with a free credit consultation and find out what Credit Saint’s team may be able to do for a specific credit report — including reviewing inquiries and challenging items that appear inaccurate.
Reviewed By:
Ashley Davison
Editor
Ashley is currently the Chief Compliance Officer for Credit Saint, previously the Chief Operating Officer. Ashley got into the Financial world by working as a Logistics Coordinator at Ernst & Young. Coming from a previous career in education, she is eager to teach the world everything she knows and learn everything that she doesn’t! Ashley is a FICO® certified professional, a Board Certified Credit Consultant, a Certified Credit Score Consultant with the Credit Consultants Association of America, UDAAP certified, and holds a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Compliance Certificate.
