How to remove hard inquiries from your credit report

Only some. A hard inquiry from an application you made stays for up to two years, and Experian says a legitimate one cannot be removed. An inquiry you never authorized, one from identity theft, or one that is simply wrong can be disputed. The credit bureau then has 30 days to investigate, and it must delete or correct what it cannot verify.

Up to two years, according to Experian, Equifax and myFICO. FICO Scores only count inquiries from the last 12 months. Experian says VantageScore models can consider inquiries from the last 24 months, but the effect usually fades within a few months.

No bureau or scoring company publishes a hard limit. myFICO says one more inquiry takes less than five points off most people's FICO Scores, and that new credit is 10% of the score. It also says people with six or more inquiries can be up to eight times more likely to declare bankruptcy than people with none. That is why many inquiries close together can worry a lender.

Less than people fear. The CFPB says multiple mortgage credit checks within 45 days are recorded as a single inquiry. myFICO says FICO Scores group mortgage, auto and student loan inquiries made within 14 days on older versions, or 45 days on newer ones. FICO Scores also ignore those inquiries for the 30 days before scoring. Credit card and personal loan applications are not grouped this way.

First call the company listed with the inquiry; Experian notes a store card can appear under its bank's name. If it is fraud, report it at IdentityTheft.gov or 1-877-438-4338. Place a free fraud alert with one bureau. Then send each bureau your FTC Identity Theft Report and ask it to block the inquiry. The bureaus must block it within 4 business days of receiving the required papers.

IdentityTheft.gov lists these numbers for fraud alerts and freezes: Equifax 800-685-1111, Experian 888-397-3742 and TransUnion 888-909-8872. For free credit reports from all three, IdentityTheft.gov lists 1-877-322-8228.

Section 609 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681g, gives you the right to see what is in your file, including who pulled your report in the past year. It is a disclosure right. The dispute right is in Section 611, 15 U.S.C. 1681i: the bureau must investigate within 30 days and delete or correct what is inaccurate, incomplete or cannot be verified. No letter format can make the bureaus delete accurate information.

It depends on the whole report, so no one can answer it for you in advance. myFICO says payment history makes up 35% of a FICO Score, and new credit, which includes inquiries, makes up 10%. Our collections guide covers what can and cannot come off.

myFICO says base FICO Scores run from 300 to 850, and a good FICO Score is generally 670 or above. Scores of 740 and above are called very good, and 800 or higher exceptional. Lenders set their own cutoffs.

No. The CFPB says your own requests for your credit reports are soft inquiries. They are shown only to you and do not affect your credit scores.

Not for accurate ones. The CFPB says you generally cannot have accurate negative information removed, and that there is no reason to pay someone to dispute inaccuracies, because you can do it for free. Paid help makes sense only if you want someone to review all three reports and handle disputes the facts support. Brillant Credit does not promise any deletion, score change or timeline.