 TITLE: Can Credit Repair Companies Remove Hard Inquiries? CONTENT: What to Do if You Have Inaccurate Inquiries\n-------------------------------------------\nThe first step to determining whether you have inaccuracies in your credit file is to get a free credit report and go over it in detail.\nThere are two types of inquiries that can appear on your report: soft inquiries and hard inquiries. A soft inquiry is usually the result of a pre-screened or preapproved credit offer from a company that you already have a relationship with, or of you getting a copy of your credit report. Soft inquiries have no effect on your credit score, so there's no reason you'd need to get them removed.\nOn the other hand, a hard inquiry reflects an actual application for a new credit account. Having a couple recent hard inquiries on your credit report is unlikely to have a significant impact on your credit score. But having several recent hard inquiries can have a bigger effect on your score. The more recent the inquiry, the more effect it will have. (Hard inquiries stay on your credit report for two years, but FICO® Scores☉ don't consider hard inquiries greater than 12 months old.)\nWhen you see a hard inquiry you don't recognize, there are several steps you can take. First, contact the company listed on the report, as it may be an inquiry that you approved but one that's listed under an unfamiliar company name or acronym. Other unfamiliar inquiries could be from services that shop around for different offers. Thankfully, credit scoring formulas consider repeated inquiries in a short period of time to be applications for a single loan, limiting their effect on your credit score.\nBut if you've investigated the hard inquiry and determined that you didn't authorize it, you can dispute it as fraud. To do that, contact the company that reported the inquiry, as well as the credit reporting bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). END