Every point may count when you’re applying for a new credit card or loan. Unfortunately, you generally can’t remove accurate records from your credit reports, including hard inquiries from previous credit applications — even if the application was denied. But don’t stress too much. Hard inquiries typically have a minor (if any) impact on your credit scores — and may not affect your credit scores after a year.
USA TODAY Blueprint may earn a commission from this advertiser.
Ad
Our Partner
Aura Individual
Price
$9 per month billed annually or $12 per month billed monthly
ID Theft Insurance
$1 million¹
Credit bureau monitoring
Equifax, TransUnion, Experian
Via Aura's website
Price
$9 per month billed annually or $12 per month billed monthly
ID Theft Insurance
$1 million¹
Credit bureau monitoring
Equifax, TransUnion, Experian
What is a hard inquiry?
A hard inquiry is a record of when a creditor requested a copy of your credit report to make a lending decision. Generally, they’re added to your report when you apply for a new loan or credit card, and sometimes when you apply for a credit limit increase on an open credit card.
The hard inquiry is distinguished from a soft inquiry, which is a credit check for a non-lending purpose. For example, if you check your own credit report or when one of your current creditors checks your credit report — a common practice that creditors use to manage customers’ accounts and risk.
Unlike hard inquiries, soft inquiries don’t have any impact on your credit scores. Often, they don’t even appear in the copies of credit reports that other people or companies receive.
How much does a hard inquiry affect your credit score?
Hard inquiries can have a negative or neutral impact on your credit score. But if it hurts your score, a single hard inquiry will often only have a minor impact and your score may recover within a few months if there aren’t any other negative changes.
Multiple hard inquiries during a short period can lead to a greater drop, particularly if you’re new to credit. But the exact score change will always depend on the type of credit score, the situation, and your overall credit profile.
Credit scores are computer models that analyze a credit report to generate an easy-to-understand score. Many credit scoring models use the same range (300 to 850), have the same goal (predict the likelihood a consumer falls 90-plus days behind on a bill in the next 24 months), and base their predictions on the same inputs (your credit report from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion). However, each model might use slightly different calculations and rules to determine your score.
For example, FICO will “deduplicate” (count multiple inquiries as one) hard inquiries from a 14- to 45-day window if you’re shopping for a mortgage, auto loan or student loan (the range depends on the scoring model). VantageScore credit scores deduplicate all hard inquiries that take place within 14-day windows.
How long does it take for a hard inquiry to fall off my credit report?
The credit bureaus should remove hard inquiries from your credit reports after two years, and the inquiries won’t necessarily impact your credit scores for the entire time.
FICO Scores only consider hard inquiries from the previous 12 months when calculating your score. And although VantageScore credit scores consider hard inquiries from the previous 24 months, older inquiries might not have a noticeable negative impact on your scores.
Also, inquiries are only added to the credit report that’s checked. If you apply for a loan and the lender checks your Experian credit report, a new hard inquiry will be added to that report. If you later apply for a credit card and the card issuer checks your Equifax or TransUnion reports, the hard inquiry won’t appear in those reports or affect credit scores based on those reports.
Not all credit scores are created equal: Here’s the difference between a FICO and VantageScore
How to get rid of an inaccurate hard inquiry
If you check your credit report and see a hard inquiry — but you didn’t apply for a new credit account — that could be a sign that you’re a victim of identity fraud.
Sometimes the names on your credit report won’t match companies’ consumer-facing brand names, so it might be legitimate. For example, you might see JPMCB Card on your credit report and not realize that it stands for JPMorgan Chase Bank — it’s a credit card from Chase. But it’s best to call the creditor right away to make sure someone isn’t trying to open and use a credit account in your name.
When there’s a hard inquiry from fraudulent activity, you can send a dispute to the credit bureau and ask it to remove the inquiry. The bureau will generally have to investigate and respond within 30 days.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
There’s no maximum number of hard inquiries you can have on your credit reports, but some hard inquiries might not hurt your credit scores. Credit scoring models generally ignore some of the hard inquiries from periods when you’re looking for a new loan to avoid penalizing consumers who are rate shopping.
Your credit scores might increase when hard inquiries fall off your reports, but it’s more likely the event won’t have any impact on your scores. Hard inquiries often only have a minor negative effect when they’re added to your credit report, if they impact your credit scores at all, and the impact decreases over time. Plus, FICO Scores only consider inquiries from the previous 12 months — a year before the inquiries fall off.
If someone used your information to fraudulently apply for a new credit account, resulting in a new hard inquiry, you can dispute the inquiry and account to get them removed from your credit report. Otherwise, you may have to wait for the two-year mark. But hard inquiries won’t necessarily hurt your credit scores for the entire two years.
¹$1,000,000 Identity Theft Insurance for Eligible Losses: Identity Theft Insurance underwritten by insurance company subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group‚ Inc.. The description herein is a summary and intended for informational purposes only and does not include all terms, conditions and exclusions of the policies described. Please refer to the actual policies for terms, conditions, and exclusions of coverage. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions.
No one can prevent all identity theft or monitor all transactions effectively.
