Why Florida Consumers should be Careful with Hard Credit Checks (2024)

FAQs

Why are hard credit inquiries bad? ›

While a hard inquiry will stay on your credit report for two years, it will usually only impact your credit for up to a year, and usually by less than five points. Too many hard inquiries in a short time could make it look like you're seeking loans and credit cards that you may not be able to pay back.

Risk is what it's all about for the creditors, and analyzing what kind of profit or loss a potential customer poses is why hard inquiries can bring your score down. Also, most credit scores that drop due to inquiries will bounce back after a few months of good credit behavior by the consumer.

Why do hard credit checks affect my credit score? Lots of credit applications in a short space of time may make companies think you're in financial trouble, or that you rely too much on borrowing. A hard credit check shows you've applied for credit, so they signal to lenders that you may be higher risk.

Good news: Credit scores aren't impacted by checking your own credit reports or credit scores. In fact, regularly checking your credit reports and credit scores is an important way to ensure your personal and account information is correct, and may help detect signs of potential identity theft.

A hard inquiry could lower your scores by a few points, or it may have a negligible effect on your scores. In most cases, a single hard inquiry is unlikely to play a huge role in whether you're approved for a new card or loan.

Hard inquiries serve as a timeline of when you have applied for new credit and may stay on your credit report for two years, although they typically only affect your credit scores for one year. Depending on your unique credit history, hard inquiries could indicate different things to different lenders.

In summary. Hard inquiries are a necessary part of the process of getting a new line of credit. While they can hurt your credit score at first, they won't typically have a lasting impact.

Dispute the hard inquiry with the creditor

If a hard inquiry is fraudulent or was made in error, the best first step is to ask the creditor who pulled your credit to have it removed. To do this, you'll need to write a letter explaining why the inquiry was fraudulent.

If you find an unauthorized or inaccurate hard inquiry, you can file a dispute letter and request that the bureau remove it from your report. The consumer credit bureaus must investigate dispute requests unless they determine your dispute is frivolous.

In general, six or more hard inquiries are often seen as too many. Based on the data, this number corresponds to being eight times more likely than average to declare bankruptcy. This heightened credit risk can damage a person's credit options and lower one's credit score.

How many hard inquiries is bad? ›

According to FICO, studies show that people with six or more hard inquiries on their credit reports can be up to eight times as likely to declare bankruptcy, compared to those with no inquiries.

Ways to avoid hard inquiries:

Brainstorm before you apply for any new credit. Think twice if you really need that credit or not. Do your rate shopping for any one form of credit in a short span of time. Numerous hard pulls associated to any one form of credit, if done within 14-45 days shall be considered as one.

Sometimes when you apply for credit, each application triggers a hard inquiry. That's how credit card applications work, for example. That means applying for multiple credit cards over a short period of time will lead to multiple hard inquiries. And that could hurt your credit scores more than a single hard inquiry.

Removing a hard inquiry can raise your credit score if it's recent, but it may have no impact at all. While hard inquiries stay on your credit report for around two years, they only affect your score for about six months to a year. So, removing a hard inquiry over a year old may not raise your score.

However, multiple hard inquiries can deplete your score by as much as 10 points each time they happen. People with six or more recent hard inquiries are eight times as likely to file for bankruptcy than those with none. That's way more inquiries than most of us need to find a good deal on a car loan or credit card.

Since hard inquiries affect your credit score and what is found may even affect approval, you might be wondering: How many inquiries is too many? The answer differs from lender to lender, but most consider six total inquiries on a report at one time to be too many to gain approval for an additional credit card or loan.

According to FICO, a hard inquiry from a lender will decrease your credit score five points or less. If you have a strong credit history and no other credit issues, you may find that your scores drop even less than that. The drop is temporary.

If a hard inquiry is the result of a credit application you made, it cannot be removed from your credit report. It is simply a matter of record, and it will fall off your report naturally after two years—and will have no effect on your credit scores after one year.