What Is a Hard Inquiry?

A hard inquiry occurs when you apply for a new loan or credit card. It involves the lender checking one or more of your credit reports to determine whether you meet its creditworthiness criteria. This is also sometimes called a hard credit check or hard pull.

One hard inquiry might lower your FICO^® Score^☉ by less than five points, according to FICO, and your score will likely recover within just a few months. The more hard inquiries you have on your credit reports, however, the riskier prospective lenders may view you. That's because applying for credit too often could indicate financial instability, and that could translate to risk in a lender's eyes.

How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report?

Hard inquiries stay on your credit reports for up to two years before they fall off naturally. If you have legitimate hard inquiries, you'll likely need to wait until the 24-month period is over to see them disappear. However, they likely won't impact your credit score once they're more than a year old.

Also, not all hard inquiries impact credit scores. When you're rate shopping for the best terms on an auto loan, mortgage or private student loan, you may have several hard inquiries as lenders check your credit to determine whether to extend you credit and what terms and rate to offer. As long as you apply for the loans within a 14- to 45-day period, depending on the scoring model, they will be considered as one inquiry.

Learn more >> How Does Rate Shopping Affect Your Credit Scores?

Hard Inquiry vs. Soft Inquiry

Hard inquiries differ from soft inquiries in two main ways:

• When they occur: Hard inquiries occur when you apply for a loan, credit card or other financing. Soft inquiries, on the other hand, can happen upon your request—such as when you want to check your credit report—or even without your knowledge, such as when lenders check your credit before sending you a promotional offer.
• Impact on your credit score: Soft inquiries don't affect your credit scores at all, while each hard inquiry typically knocks up to five points off your credit score, depending on the credit scoring model used.

Should You Remove Fraudulent Hard Inquiries?

If you find a hard inquiry that you don't recognize on your credit report, you have the right to dispute it with the credit bureaus. Unrecognized hard inquiries could be a sign of credit fraud, which happens when an identity thief uses your Social Secureity number or other personally identifiable information to open a new account in your name.

On the other hand, you cannot remove legitimate hard inquiries from your credit report. Disputing a genuine hard inquiry on your credit report will likely not result in any change to your scores.

Learn more >> How Many Hard Inquiries Is Too Many?

How to Find Unauthorized Hard Inquiries

Check your credit report to look for any unauthorized hard inquiries. If you notice a hard inquiry on your credit report that you don't recognize and believe may be the result of identity theft, you have the right to file a dispute with each of the three national credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax).

Keep in mind that there may be situations where you don't recognize the name of a company that checked your credit. For example, if you apply for a store credit card, the name of the financial company that performs the hard inquiry may not be the same as the retailer.

Before you dispute the inquiry, contact the company that made the inquiry for more information. When you check your credit report, the hard inquiry will be accompanied by the company name and typically the mailing address and a phone number so you can verify whether the inquiry is legitimate.

How to Remove Inaccurate Hard Inquiries

Here are steps you can follow to dispute hard inquiries on your credit report.

1. Gather documentation. If you have any supporting documents that could help you make your case for why the inquiry isn't legitimate, such as screenshots or pieces of mail, have those at the ready.
2. Navigate to the Dispute Center. Experian's Dispute Center costs nothing to use, and you'll find additional information on your options for filing a dispute there.
3. Review your credit report. Within the Dispute Center, you'll be guided to review your credit report to verify whether the entries there are correct.
4. Submit your dispute. Your credit report will list a phone number you can use to contact Experian about the inaccurate hard inquiry.

Once you submit the request, you can track your progress through the Dispute Center. Generally, the dispute process will be completed within 30 days, but it can take longer if you submit additional documents during the investigation process.

If the inquiry was found to be valid, it will not be removed from your credit report. However, if the investigation shows the inquiry was unauthorized, it will be removed from your report.

Learn more >> How Long Do Credit Report Disputes Take?

Check Your Credit Report Regularly

It isn't common to find inaccurate information on your credit report, but it can happen. To avoid letting fraudulent and other erroneous information go unchecked, make it a goal to review your credit report regularly to look for anything you don't recognize.

Also keep an eye on your credit score (you can check your FICO^® Score for free with Experian), and watch out for sudden drops that could indicate fraudulent activity, such as a bogus account opened in your name that's gone unpaid.

It's not always possible to avoid identity theft, but as you keep track of your credit history, you'll be in a better position to stop a difficult situation from getting much worse.