topic Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you? in Rebuilding Your Credit

Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

RushXTC — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 21:11:30 GMT

I have a perfect credit history, nearly 400 on time payments (100% on time rate), Never been in collections no derogatory marks or anything like that, But my score dropped a lot when I went to look for a car and a dealership ran my credit around 13 times... In total I ended up having 30 inquiries... 2 have since dropped naturally and I'm at 28.

My friend hired Lexington law because he had accounts in collections, late payments and 30 inquiries as well. They charged him $15 to pull his credit, and $100 each month he decides to keep the service, He's still on his first month and they already removed a collections account and 5 inquiries, Which boosted his credit up by 40 points (from mid 500's).

I'm very tempted, Especially because The dealership lied to me and told me I was approved on the first day, It wasn't until 2 weeks after I already had the car that I checked my report and they were still submitting requests... They told me $0 down payment, But that they needed me to pay for 1 month insurance ($250) turns out they used a rebate and $250 was my downpayment.. Long story short, I returned the car without a problem, Got a refund and everything because they knew they were at fault.

Would it look bad on my perfect record to have lexington law remove my inquiries? I mean, I could always wait the 2 years, But to be honest I really hate seeing 28 inquiries.... It makes me feel bad.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

gdale6 — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 21:17:00 GMT

This board nor most anyone on it is going to direct you to LL for inquiry removal, inquiries only affect your Fico for 1 year, if you have 13 for auto all within a 14 day period they should be only counted as 1 in the eyes of Fico but they need to be coded correctly. If they are coded correctly and you are denied for inquiries a manual review will give you the opportunity to explain to the UW that 13 of them are for auto shopping. I would not be paying them for anything.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

TRC_WA — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 22:00:55 GMT

These credit repair places can't do anything you can't do yourself IMHO.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

Shogun — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 22:01:55 GMT

@gdale6 wrote:
This board nor most anyone on it is going to direct you to LL for inquiry removal, inquiries only affect your Fico for 1 year, if you have 13 for auto all within a 14 day period they should be only counted as 1 in the eyes of Fico but they need to be coded correctly. If they are coded correctly and you are denied for inquiries a manual review will give you the opportunity to explain to the UW that 13 of them are for auto shopping. I would not be paying them for anything.

What LL will do is dispute the Inqs. That's about it. And definitely not worth it.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

azguy13 — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 22:07:12 GMT

You will be paying $115 for them to hit "dispute" with all 3 major CRAs. They cannot send DVs or contact any creditors. They are also not a law firm. They are a company with the word "law" in their name who found a way to exploit the fact that the majority of Americans do not know anything about credit or credit reporting.

You can do in 30 minutes what they will do for $115 and take a month.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

SunriseEarth — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 23:39:12 GMT

+1.

You could just wait a year for all INQ to not factor into your scoring. You could even wait six months for the effects of the INQs to largely dissipate. But paying an agency hundreds of dollars because you don't like how something "looks" isn't a good way to apply your efforts or your cash.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

TRC_WA — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 05:09:55 GMT

@azguy13 wrote:
You will be paying $115 for them to hit "dispute" with all 3 major CRAs. They cannot send DVs or contact any creditors. They are also not a law firm. They are a company with the word "law" in their name who found a way to exploit the fact that the majority of Americans do not know anything about credit or credit reporting.

You can do in 30 minutes what they will do for $115 and take a month.

Or the OP could just send me their info and $57.50 and I'll hit the dispute button for them at a 50% discount.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

Shogun — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 05:15:16 GMT

@TRC_WA wrote:
@azguy13 wrote:
You will be paying $115 for them to hit "dispute" with all 3 major CRAs. They cannot send DVs or contact any creditors. They are also not a law firm. They are a company with the word "law" in their name who found a way to exploit the fact that the majority of Americans do not know anything about credit or credit reporting.

You can do in 30 minutes what they will do for $115 and take a month.
Or the OP could just send me their info and $57.50 and I'll hit the dispute button for them at a 50% discount.

This would be a direct violation of the CROA.

PS. I know this was a bit of humor

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

TRC_WA — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 05:21:04 GMT

@Shogun wrote:
@TRC_WA wrote:
@azguy13 wrote:
You will be paying $115 for them to hit "dispute" with all 3 major CRAs. They cannot send DVs or contact any creditors. They are also not a law firm. They are a company with the word "law" in their name who found a way to exploit the fact that the majority of Americans do not know anything about credit or credit reporting.

You can do in 30 minutes what they will do for $115 and take a month.
Or the OP could just send me their info and $57.50 and I'll hit the dispute button for them at a 50% discount.
This would be a direct violation of the CROA.

PS. I know this was a bit of humor

I'm amazed at the people that pay for these types of "services."

I just did a google search and found a dozen websites with claims of being able to remove everything from inquiries to CO's to BR's. One website even posted a pic of an EQ results of investigation letter and it had about 20 different things listed...

... and 3/4 of them were inquiries that said "inquiries are a factual record of access to credit file and can't be removed."

Really? They weren't even removed. I'm guessing the company is banking on people NOT reading the letter they posted?

I am baffled at how people pay companies to hit the dispute button for them... as I said in my first post you can do it all yourself. LOL

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

Shogun — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 05:24:08 GMT

@TRC_WA wrote:
@Shogun wrote:
@TRC_WA wrote:
@azguy13 wrote:
You will be paying $115 for them to hit "dispute" with all 3 major CRAs. They cannot send DVs or contact any creditors. They are also not a law firm. They are a company with the word "law" in their name who found a way to exploit the fact that the majority of Americans do not know anything about credit or credit reporting.

You can do in 30 minutes what they will do for $115 and take a month.
Or the OP could just send me their info and $57.50 and I'll hit the dispute button for them at a 50% discount.
This would be a direct violation of the CROA.

PS. I know this was a bit of humor

I'm amazed at the people that pay for these types of "services."

I just did a google search and found a dozen websites with claims of being able to remove everything from inquiries to CO's to BR's. One website even posted a pic of an EQ results of investigation letter and it had about 20 different things listed...

... and 3/4 of them were inquiries that said "inquiries are a factual record of access to credit file and can't be removed."

Really? They weren't even removed. I'm guessing the company is banking on people NOT reading the letter they posted?

I am baffled at how people pay companies to hit the dispute button for them... as I said in my first post you can do it all yourself. LOL

I've perused through the dark depths of YouTube and seen some of the people advertising their wares there. Some of them just made me plain mad. I'm here to help, legitimately help people. I wouldn't mind them making some money if they were legitimate. But their claims and tactics really... well... good choice of words here.... let's just say I don't do a Happy Dance.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 01:46:41 GMT

To the OP, If you have perfect credit, that would be in the 800's. Inquiries only account for 10% of the score. You will be left with a rating in the mid 700's, and that will get you great rates on credit all day long. Trying to get these removed is going to cost a lot if you go that route. As mentioned, do it for free yourself. You are allowed to pull your real reports once a year. These will not have a score, but will have 100% accurate information, and will allow you to dispute from there.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

azguy13 — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 01:51:12 GMT

If you read their facebook page you will get even more angry

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

lavencedora — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 02:09:48 GMT

To OP -- Agree with all here re: not using LL and the impact of the inquiries. I understand exactly how you feel, though. I have about 9 inquiries from a dealership when I told them that I was using my pre-approved financing & was not requesting financing from them. It is enraging. I have already taken the hit on my report and I do get denials that say "too many inquiries" as a reason. I suspect your good record will override that kind of denial, though. Inquiries are rarely the primary reason for denial, as I understand it.

Anyway, since I understand how maddening it is to have a dealership LIE to you (they lied to me, as well, saying they were honoring my desire to use my own financing) & then do that to your credit. I'm making complaints wherever I can -- BBB and any dealership/consumer watchdogs. No matter what happens, I'll feel better not staying silent. I recommend you think about this, as well. It may take a little of the sting out...

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

Drsgwld — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 02:31:10 GMT

Do NOT call them. Contact all 3 credit Bureaus. They should have NEVER pulled that many times. I would have that removed. If they do not, contact Consumer Financial Credit Bureau and file a complaint.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

lavencedora — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 06:08:58 GMT

Personally, I planned to file CFPB since it relates to auto finance product & they lied about it, then shopped me all over the place. And, they only pulled slightly over half the number of OP. But, numerous lies. In my case, they told me they were using my financing, KEPT my blank check, did not give me the credit disclosure, apparently to keep the pretense of their lie that they used my pre-approved financing ... while putting on my paperwork their own financing. They also lied and said I was ineligible for the Hyundai owner rebate, which I was eligible for & did get from the dealership I ultimately bought from.

So, yeah, I will be filing with BBB and CFPB and AG. I definitely encourage OP to do the same. These dealerships can really be bad. At minimum, we can make sure we report the behavior. Even if we don't get resolutions for our inquiry issues, there will be a record against them and that helps establish a pattern of bad behavior that might aid other consumers.

Re: Does Lexington Law inquiry removal hurt you?

Drsgwld — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 14:49:51 GMT

This is a big NO with all 3 bureaus and I know for a fact, Transunion has an area to dispute directly under the Inquiries section and I'm sure the other 2 do as well.

All disputes are time consuming. I can tell you The toughest disputes are Student Loans, even if there is an error on their part with contacting to find out who and what your payment amount is. I've even seen Lenders start payment processes before students have left college. With all that said, I have dealt with the most difficult and DID It MYSELF!!! Outside of bankruptcy, I don't know of a more challenging removals than those negative credit remarks with the government associations. If I can do it, you can do it!!!