Many factors can act as a crucial role in determining the growth or fall of your Credit Score. Few of those essential elements are your payment history and how well you have managed your Credit Score.
So, to know the status of your credit report, you have to monitor your credit report. But checking your credit report is also regarded as an inquiry, and even having your lender inquiring about it can impact your credit report and score. However, both the inquiries have different meanings as both the examinations fall under different categories. So you might think about what they are and how they affect your credit score?
That’s what this article aims to provide; a detailed understanding of hard inquiries and the effect of hard inquiries on credit score?
So, let’s continue reading further about what is a hard inquiry?
What is a Hard Credit Inquiry and How Does It Affect?
A hard inquiry or a hard credit inquiry is when a lender gets access to your credit report and Credit Score from all three credit bureaus using your Social Security Number. In this scenario, they try to understand your overall eligibility for a loan or credit card. This kind of inquiry affects your loan application or credit approval. A hard inquiry can also affect your credit variable, which might account for 10% of your credit score.
In case you know your credit score and might not have an idea what it signifies, then you can have a quick look at the credit score chart below
Credit Score Table
| Credit Score | Credit Rating |
| 300 to 600 | Very low |
| 601 to 700 | Low |
| 701 to 760 | Fair |
| 761 to 800 | Good |
| Above 800 | Excellent |
Also, if you have not monitored your credit score yet, you should quickly check it by logging into the Buddy Score.
Hence, the fewer the hard inquiries are, the better it gets for you. Also, usually hard inquiries older than 12 months are overlooked. However, you might anticipate hard inquiries to drop your overall score based on your credit history. Still, mostly it should return to its normal or earlier position in a few months. But, it should appear normal with sound debt management.
Times When You Can Go Through a Hard Inquiry
- When you plan to take a Personal Loan online.
- When you apply for a credit card.
- Private student loans can also cause a hard inquiry.
Times When Inquiries Do Not Affect on Credit Score at All
Not all inquiries can have a harsh impact on your credit score. One of the most common inquiries is a soft credit inquiry. A soft credit inquiry or soft inquiry is when an institution or an individual gets access to their credit history without the intention to provide or get a loan, credit card, or line of credit.
So, these kinds of inquiries are considered informative inquiries, that are usually processed to verify the legitimacy of one’s identity or to understand one’s debt and reasons for taking it.
So, there are times when this kind of inquiry does not affect your credit score, as they might show up in a section of the credit report or might not even show up, and they don’t impact your credit score.
Times You Can Undergo a Soft Inquiry.
Some of the situations which can make you go through a soft inquiry.
- When a credit card company provides a pre-approved loan.
- When a financial institution accesses your credit report to verify your personal information.
- When you check your credit report as a mandatory analysis or monitoring.
Effective Ways to Remove Hard Inquiries
There are several effective ways to remove your hard inquiries. Sometimes removing these hard inquiries is the only way to prevent oneself from the harsh effect of hard inquiries on credit score. However, hard inquiries are considered old and overlooked if they cross 12 months.
So, either you can wait, or you can also try these effective ways for deletion of illegitimate credit inquiries. Let’s read through these simple, practical steps.
1. Requesting the company to pull your credit – This step intends to remove hard inquiries by sending a dispute letter to a company. This letter will include an explanation about how you want the company to delete the hard inquiry from the credit file as you have not provided authority to the company to pull your credit.
After sending this letter to the concerned company, they should notify you about the deletion of the illegitimate hard inquiry.
2. Requesting to the credit bureaus – In this process, you send a letter requesting to all the credit bureaus you saw in the credit inquiry. You should provide the essential details about yourself in the letter but must ensure you have sent the letter under certified mail to the three major credit bureaus.
After sending this letter, the credit bureaus should delete the illegitimate inquiry after you have provided supporting documents proofing the illicit inquiry.
3. Online Dispute – Raising an online dispute with the three major credit bureaus will be the most straightforward process. This procedure includes basic information about you and the matter you are disputing on. You should complete the procedure by submitting the dispute online, which should result in removing the hard inquiry.
So, once you have used any of these procedures to remove your hard credit inquiries, you should receive a notification about the updated result.
End Note
Thus using these quick, straightforward ways, you can remove your hard inquiries faster if you aim to get a personal loan. You must remove the hard inquiries on your credit report to get a quick personal loan. However, if you are planning to get a personal loan online, you can log in to the Buddy Loan website for more information and assistance.
