Disputing inquiries

[bishop27]

will disputing inquries and getting them deleated raise your score?

[chane]

It depends on whether inquiries are hurting your scores. It should probably raise them a little bit.

[natevarney]

I have 2 hard inquiries on my credit report from the same company, Calvary Portfolio. They purchased the account from my original creditor, are they allowed to do "hard" inquiries on my account? I understand they can check my credit by doing "soft" inquiries that dont show up and affect my score. Should or can I dispute them? I called Trans union about the inquiries and they told me to contact Calvary to get a letter written stating to delete them.

[chane]

Who told you to call TU? It's best to dispute them in writing.

[natevarney]

ya thats what I thought but i wanted to make sure i should fight this first ...they cant do hard inquiries anytime they want right? just because i have an account open with them?

[chane]

They can if they have permissible purpose. I would dispute them.

[lovelynubia]

I have an Hard Inquiry that was pulled from a collection agency, to my understanding collection agency's can not pull your credit right?

[Lian]

Legally, there is no such thing as a "hard" or "soft" inquiry. Those terms, or words to their effect, are not mentioned in the FCRA. Under the FCRA, inquiries are either for a permissible purpose, meaning they are sanctioned by one or more subsection of section 604, or they are not. If a permissible purpose is provided, all inquiries (except for promotional inquiries) get the same information. The inquiree is required, under sections 6049f)(2) and 607(a), to provide a self-certifying statement of permissible purpose.

Coding of inquiries as 'hard" or "soft" are administrative creations of the CRAs to assist their clients in providing some record of their stated purpose. As such, basis for any dispute is not predicated upon the FCRA unless it can be shown that the inquiree did not provide a certification of their permissible purpose to the CRA. Since the CRA has met its obligation once it has obtained a certification of purpose from the inquiree, disputes over their legitimacy must overcome the CRA presumption of accuracy of the certified purpose. Kind tough to do...

Recoding from a code that FICO scores (i.e., a "hard" inquiry) to one that FICO does not score (i.e., a so-called "soft" inquiry) is usually confined to informal requests to the creditor, as the CRA already has its statement of permissible purpose, which ends its statutory obligation.

Debt collectors have exercised permissible pull authority for decades under the provision of FCRA 604(a)(3)(A), which specifically defines collection on an account as being basis for obtaining the information in a consumer's credit file.

[chane]

Originally Posted by lovelynubia

I have an hard inquiry that was pulled from a collection agency, to my understanding collection agency's can not pull your credit right?

I thought that collection agency disputes were usually soft pulls, but I could be wrong about that.

If it's a questionable item you may dispute it. Inquiries only stay on your credit report for 2 years and some people think it's risky to dispute them. They say to just leave them alone, but if the inquiry has been made within the last 6 months, I would dispute it.

[Lian]

A more practical reason why many don't pursue disputes over the coding of credit inquiries is that, while they can remain in your CR for two years, FICO ceases scoring their impact after one year. So by the time the dispute process churns its course, the impact of an inquiry is usually either negligible (less than 5 pts) or totally gone. Not an item that is usually worth the time, effort, or aggravation.

The perceived low importance vs effort required to address disputes over credit inquiries was specifically considered by the rulemakers when enacting the new rules, effective 7/1/2010, regulating the new direct dispute process. Their decision was to totally exclude all issues pertaining to disputes over credit report inquiries from the direct dispute process. 16 CFR 660.4(b)(iii).