Disputing Inquires
is it possible to dispute inquiries on a credit report. i called up experian and asked them to dispute 4 out of 36 inquires on
my credit report and they told me they couldnt do that.
i would have to contact the companies that made the inquiries and have them delete them.
i contacted one company and they told me to dispute it and they wouldn't verify it.
now what do i do???
The credit reporting agencies experian equifax and transunion do not have to fix your report, that was correct. You do need written proof to provide from the company that pulled the credit. here's a sample letter for you: Dear guy who ran my credit without my authorization: On x date you pulled my credit report without my authorization. Please write me a letter stating you will delete the inquiry and also inform experian/equifax/transunion that this is your error. Please resond within ten working days to my address below....
Do not add your telephone number you are looking for written response. They are required by law to respond in thirty days, if they do not you will need to write a follow up letter and send your dispute letters to experian/.... the law to quote is the Fair Credit Reporting Act USC, Title 15, Chapter 41, Subchapter 111, Section 1681i.... Depending on who ran your credit it may be regulated by FTC or other government agencies. You don't mention who ran it. Inquiries are not that big of a hit on your fico scores... the-loanlady. cg
Yes, you could do all that and likely still have them remain as you wait for snal-mail to criss-cross... OR:
Just call all three and dispute. There's one of them (I forget which) that is a pain and generally won't allow inq disputes directly. I just got 11 wiped off my Equifax report a few days ago. It took me a few minutes.
DO NOT discuss with csr how they may be the result of such and such, just dispute as you having no idea what they are. If the csr gives you a hard time, just hang up and call again, get another csr and try again.... it's that simple.
Now... you MAY get issues if the inq's are from existing accounts you have, or if they are related to an event. For instance, if you have a bunch of inq's for a car loan around the same time you took out a car loan, they may say they can't delete. Again, hang up and try again.
I do believe it is against the law to pull a credit report without your express permission. Otherwise we would pull everyone's report all the time !
ANd writing to the big three and disputing specific items should be all it takes to get the information removed (provided the other party doesn't show good cause).
[addsig]
Personally I think the credit bureaus are a joke. I had a bad mark on mine and I called the bank that put it there to show me proof and they could not. So I wrote a letter to all three bureaus and told them about it and they responded in a week stating they called the bank and the bad mark was valid. I know they didnt show proof because I have asked on several occasions and they could not . so basically the extent of the bureaus investigation is calling and if they say yes then it must be true. Its really messed up.
Equifax will let you dispute inquiries pretty readily. The others aren't so good about it.
This is how you get rid of all inq. Call up Experian tell them you noticed there are inq on your account you believe are fraud. They will send you to the fraud dept. Tell them the same and they will put a fraud alert on your account for 6months. This has no effect on your credit it just makes someone trying to run your credit have to proove its you. Call up Equifax they will do the same . TU you will need to write the letter and send it to them you can call and ask for the fraud dept but they will still want you to write them. This worked to remove all my inq off my account
DO NOT claim fraud when there is none. This is a criminal offense. In the time since this thread has been posted, I have removed a total of 19 inq's from my reports without waiting for the pony express to trot back and forth, and WITHOUT making criminal claims.
If you don't want to dance with the Devil, don't wink.
thank you for the tip
thank you for the tip
Equifax is the easiest to have inquiries removed. I have done it by mail, internet, and phone. Experian and TU are a little tougher but can be done with persistance. I will give you this advice. If you get a letter from any of the big three showing where Inquiries were removed, be sure to save it. That way, if you ever dispute inquiries again, and the CRAs say they don't investigate inquiries, you will have proof that isn't true.
" I do believe it is against the law to pull a credit report without your express permission. Otherwise we would pull everyone's report all the time ! "
The question I have is what constitutes express permission? Clicking o.k. on a website where the disclosure that they're going to pull credit is buried on some other page?
Also, if you go the the process of not getting a response or getting a response say "sorry wasn't us", then you have much more ammo than asking for things to be removed.
I have seen things disputed, take off, and then reappear. Where there was a paper trial that something should be taking off, I never had pop back on my report.
I think it should be noted that you do not need a indiviual's permission to pull a credit report. The law states that you need a legitimate business reason for doing so, so what most (companies) do is get your written permission as proof of that reason. Quite a number of companies will pull your credit info without your permission and then send you a pre-approved credit offer, and car dealers usually do it while you're out on you test drive. Some rent a car companies now do it if your renting for longer than a week, if you don't take insurance or if you rent using a debt card. The credit bureau's even make it easy for some companies to do so by selling them your information (without your permission of course) based on pre-set criteria the the companies request, that's why you should opt out by contacting them directly (their lobbyist set it up so that you have to opt out inside of opt in), I hope this clears up any questions.