How Inquiries Affect Your Credit Report

     Did you know that inquiries on your credit report can actually affect your credit score? Having too many inquiries can lower your credit score so that it makes it difficult in the future to get the lending that you need.    Understanding the way that inquiries affect your credit will help you protect your credit score in the future.

     Any time that you apply for credit, such as a car loan, credit card, or even a mortgage your credit report is pulled and looked into, which is known as an inquiry. It is noted on your account how many different people have inquired as to what your credit status is. These credit inquiries actually will stay on your credit report for one year, and they have the potential to affect your credit for that entire duration.

     You should understand that there are two different types of credit report inquiries. The hard inquiry is the type that will affect your credit report more, and this is the type of inquiry that occurs when you authorize your lender to view your report when you are applying for any credit. You should be very careful about what lenders you allow to hard pull your credit.

     In addition to the hard pull, there is also the soft pull. The soft pull is not a big deal because this does not negatively impact your credit score. A soft pull is done when someone is pre-approving you for a loan or financing of some sort.

     When you know how credit pulls can affect your credit score you may be worried when you are shopping around for financing. What you should know is that any credit inquiries that occur within 14 days are counted as one. You want to be careful about how often you allow your credit report to be pulled because many lenders will not lend to those that have too many inquiries because this generally means that you have bad credit, you are over extended, and therefore too large of a risk.

     If you pull your credit report and you see that there were inquiries made by unauthorized individuals you can dispute it. You can do this by contacting the creditor directly in writing and ask them for proof that you wanted them to check your credit for any reason. If they cannot provide the proof they are required by law to remove the inquiry from your credit report.

Disclaimer: This site is not , nor should it be taken to be, legal, financial or other professional advice. It merely provides a generalized guidance and generalized information only. Consult a financial advisor or an attorney to discuss any legal or financial issues involved with credit and debt decisions.