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Remove hard inquiries from personal credit

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Remove hard inquiries from personal credit

I am attempting to get hard inquiries related to applying for business loans, lines of credit and trade lines removed from my personal credit report.  Experian is claiming there is a federal law requiring them to leave those business related inquiries on my personal credit report.  Equifax says "Inquiries are a matter of record..."

 

Is there a law I can refer to in my letter?  I am writing asking them to give me the specific federal law they are referencing. 

 

Does anyone have any techniques they have used to successfully get this damaging information off my personal reports?

 

If all else fails, I plan to ask them to add a statement disputing the accuracy or completeness of the information.

 

Thanks!

Message 1 of 22
21 REPLIES 21
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit

It's a losing battle and more than likely you will be put on fraud alert. When you applied for the business loans/tradelines you provided your social which by doing so gives them permission to pull your personal report to extend credit to you

Message 2 of 22
Creditaddict
Legendary Contributor

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit

What Credit Card, Loan, Bank did you apply with?

Message 3 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit

I'm not sure why it matters which, but we have applied to a local bank and Chase, a financial group who finds lending sources, and a credit union which deals specificly with my profession, all in an attempt to buy an existing business.  Some of these pulled more than once.  Also, a line of credit with a supplier. 

 

Commercial real estate will also pull a credit report, and equipment leasing. Now we are afraid to shop for the best deal because it will take years for our personal scores to recover. 

 

I have a warning on my credit monitoring reports that the score is harmed by too many credit inquiries, and I am just trying to do business, not load up on credit for a shopping spree!

Message 4 of 22
Creditaddict
Legendary Contributor

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit


@Anonymous wrote:

I'm not sure why it matters which, but we have applied to a local bank and Chase, a financial group who finds lending sources, and a credit union which deals specificly with my profession, all in an attempt to buy an existing business.  Some of these pulled more than once.  Also, a line of credit with a supplier. 

 

Commercial real estate will also pull a credit report, and equipment leasing. Now we are afraid to shop for the best deal because it will take years for our personal scores to recover. 

 

I have a warning on my credit monitoring reports that the score is harmed by too many credit inquiries, and I am just trying to do business, not load up on credit for a shopping spree!


It matters because their are not that many options these days to get credit lines, credit cards, etc. for a business without PG... or a company that has been in bussiness for 3-5 years and has revenue over a million or two... some places say 5 million.

Chase will almost "ALWAYS" require PG

and actually since you are trying to buy a business not open a credit card I don't think you would ever get a loan to cover that without backing it with your credit.

 

Are none of these banks telling you when you are filling out the application that by putting yourself on it you are offering to PG for the loan?

Message 5 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit

Are none of these banks telling you when you are filling out the application that by putting yourself on it you are offering to PG for the loan?  Creditaddict

 

That is not actually the question being discussed, unless I am misunderstanding your line of thought.  Whether I agree to be personally responsible for my corporation or not......

 

Are you saying that by having a business (which requires seeking leases, loc, etc), that I am a higher risk to personally renege on any credit offered?  So it is justified that my personal credit score be negatively affected? 

 

I strongly disagree with that and will fight it, by writing letters, contacting my representatives, and the FTC!

 

Any others have exerience or knowledge of how to remove business inquiries from personal credit reports?  Any techniques?  Found any applicable laws?

 

 

 

 

Message 6 of 22
Creditaddict
Legendary Contributor

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit


@Anonymous wrote:

Are none of these banks telling you when you are filling out the application that by putting yourself on it you are offering to PG for the loan?  Creditaddict

 

That is not actually the question being discussed, unless I am misunderstanding your line of thought.  Whether I agree to be personally responsible for my corporation or not......

 

Are you saying that by having a business (which requires seeking leases, loc, etc), that I am a higher risk to personally renege on any credit offered?  So it is justified that my personal credit score be negatively affected? 

 

I strongly disagree with that and will fight it, by writing letters, contacting my representatives, and the FTC!

 

Any others have exerience or knowledge of how to remove business inquiries from personal credit reports?  Any techniques?  Found any applicable laws?

 

 

 

 


No I am saying you are not just getting an INQ on your credit, most of these banks particularly Chase if they then approve you they are putting the loan in the name of the company with you backing it... if the business goes under, they are going to come looking at you to pay it.

and the INQ are not necessarily "Hurting" your credit.... Yes if you stack up a ton of INQ you might have some banks declining you saying you are applying for to much but after like 5 inq they stop even counting in scoring (not sure of exact number, think it's less then 10 though).

 

Again I go back to are these banks not telling you that this is a business loan but we are pulling your personal credit because you are responsible for the payment.

 

Back in 05-07' you could get store cards, some credit cards (Key Bank, Citi Home Depot) without backing it with your own credit but these days its just really rare unless you meet the requirements I posted above.

 

INQ are almost never removed either.

Message 7 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit

and the INQ are not necessarily "Hurting" your credit....

 

Maybe not, but all three credit reporting agencies evaluations say differently!  Also, that was a reason given for denial of credit in at least one case.

 

 

Again I go back to are these banks not telling you that this is a business loan but we are pulling your personal credit because you are responsible for the payment.

 

Of course I am responsible.  I am not trying to suggest otherwise.

 

INQ are almost never removed either.

 

I'd be interested to know if you tried and failed, or are just supposing.  What is your point of reference?  Expert opinion?  Or otherwise?

Message 8 of 22
Creditaddict
Legendary Contributor

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit


@Anonymous wrote:

and the INQ are not necessarily "Hurting" your credit....

 

Maybe not, but all three credit reporting agencies evaluations say differently!  Also, that was a reason given for denial of credit in at least one case.

Looking at a credit report through a credit monitoring agency or such is always going to list possible reasons your score is higher and possible reasons it is lower... You might see you don't have enough revolving credit, or you don't have a store card, or you do not have enough use on your credit card because it shows $0... pretty much all things that most likely are really not lowering your score... but they have to tell you something!

 

 

Again I go back to are these banks not telling you that this is a business loan but we are pulling your personal credit because you are responsible for the payment.

 

Of course I am responsible.  I am not trying to suggest otherwise.  The fact that you say you know you are responsible for the loan suggests that you understand you have to PG it, so Im confused why you think these INQ are not valid?  You rarely get credit without at least a soft pull and that's for a few store cards not a loan to buy a compay.

 

INQ are almost never removed either.

 

I'd be interested to know if you tried and failed, or are just supposing.  What is your point of reference?  Expert opinion?  Or otherwise?

By disputing an INQ you are telling the credit report agency that the company was pulling your credit without authorization which in this case is clearly not true... not saying some people have not tried and make it through but it's not something that I believe is discussed here if they are authorized.


 

Message 9 of 22
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Remove hard inquiries from personal credit


@Anonymous wrote:

and the INQ are not necessarily "Hurting" your credit....

 

Maybe not, but all three credit reporting agencies evaluations say differently!  Also, that was a reason given for denial of credit in at least one case.

 

 

Again I go back to are these banks not telling you that this is a business loan but we are pulling your personal credit because you are responsible for the payment.

 

Of course I am responsible.  I am not trying to suggest otherwise.

 

INQ are almost never removed either.

 

I'd be interested to know if you tried and failed, or are just supposing.  What is your point of reference?  Expert opinion?  Or otherwise?



Hi, OP, I know how frustrating it can get when you'd rather keep business and personal separate. I own 3 businesses and I'm largely on a cash-basis now and prefer it that way. I used to have biz CCs which I have since closed, but I do still keep a $25k LOC on standby.

 

When I used to apply for credit, I do recall reading the fine print they don't always advertise and in everything I signed, there was a personal guarantee (PG as mentioned). If your (or my) business defaults on the credit account, we have to pay it out of our own pocket to satisfy the debt. I can't speak for your business, but my largest was bringing in approx. $2million and they still required a PG for everything. In the banks' eyes, my business wasn't strong enough to eliminate that PG requirement despite 30+ years in business at the time I took over. And because there was a PG requirement, they had to make sure my credit was OK and that I wasn't apt to default on their money. I had the choice of not borrowing money or agree to their terms. As mentioned, everyone now requires a PG.

 

Ignore what the CRAs are saying about inquiries. Their advice shouldn't be followed anyway because none of the scores and/or advice your are looking at are FICO-related. In terms of FICO scoring, FICO ignores ALL inquiries after 12 months. FICO will not score them and inquiries will not hurt your credit beyond 12 months. Also, inquiry damage is overrated. Any hit would come from the first couple added. Beyond that FICO largely ignores them. YMMV on your credit profile though. I used to have 30+ on each report (EX and EQ anyway) and can speak from experience there.

 

I can also vouch for removing inquiries. Nobody is allowed to tell you to dispute any of them because that's unethical and as a mod, I'd have to zap that advice anyway. But I can tell you from personal experience it isn't worth the effort. EX will not remove them at all. TU and EQ maybe. But if you dispute the inquiries, you'll get hit with a fraud alert on EQ at least. And if any accounts were opened with those inquiries, there is an outside chance that creditor will close the account. If you are disputing an inquiry, the implication there is that you never applied for any credit, therefore fraud or ID theft occurred...thus, they'll sometimes close the account out of precaution.

 

A safer route would be to review what you signed. If they ask for a personal guarantee, they'd insert that into the T&C. They'll usually outright mention that they will pull your CR within that fine print. If it isn't in your agreement with them, then maybe you have a case to complain about it. But I'd start that by calling them and pointing out to them you never agreed to a PG and you never agreed to having your credit run. Any maybe they can recode the inquiry to a soft inquiry.

 

 

Message 10 of 22
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