Disputing Inq and any advice?

[Anonymous]

Hello, I have a question that is related to my credit report:

First to start off, I was finally able to pull my fico score through walmart tu and myfico, and its  677 [myFico] and 682 [walmart/ge-fico]. As I looked on my credit report with experian, I notice some inquires that was not authorized to be on my report (the company promise it will be soft). 2 of them was from decemeber and janurary. The other one was double hit because citibank pull my report TWICE last month, and same with capital one. I called Experian and they said they cant remove them and all they could say is to contact the company to have them remove it, but the fact is that I did. I called them, sent cerified letters, and even a copy of my credit report from transunion and experian (I cant access equifax yet), and all they say is that they will dispute it for me and I would receive a letter days later stating that nothing is wrong with my report. These inquires are making it hard for me to move away from capital one, and for me to apply for another card so I can get rid of them, and also is affecting my score. My score may not be low, but it could be higher if these inq wasnt on there like it is now.

I also need some advice. Ever since a dispute I did on my capital one card about a item I did not receive, I losted the case, and since capital one stated that they did not receive my fax and letters regarding it, the case is close, and my card was billed $119. This threw everything off because this made my card go pass the limit (but no over-the-limit fees applies to this card) and since that happen I did a balance transfer (not one through capital one but differently to avoid fees) so it can be under the limit but now im stuck having to pay $119 for something I did not receive, and this is also affecting my other accounts to because I have to use 25% of two of my cards just to lower this one card down, which brought me over 50% (nearly 69%). This is really hard for me and need advice on what to do about this. I am stuck paying the min payment because I dont want me credit ruin but because of this case that was lost and cant be reopened, it is making it look like im a person who cant handle debt. I want to get a personal loan so I can put clear my cards balances so I can pay the min on that but ugh this is so stressful, all over one dispute, everything is thrown off. Can someone help me with this and give me advice on what to do? 

[llecs]

One the topic of inquiries....IMO, inquiry damage is overrated. Most of the damage occurs when you add the first one or two. Anything beyond that is gravy. YMMV on your credit profile of course. Per FICO scoring, they only ding for one year and FICO ignores them thereafter. Under a manual review, creditors won't typically hold them against you...on its own, and might tag other items like new credit, util, etc. In other words, it is rare to get denied on inquiries alone. I once had 30+ on EX and EQ and I was still getting approved.

On a principal standpoint, I can see the desire to remove them. If they told you it would not be a hard inquiry, and it was, I'd get upset too. If a CSR tells you that it is not a hard inquiry, then know that they are either lying or just don't know. Always assume you'd have a hard inquiry after a CLI request, even if they tell you otherwise. You can always dispute it, but then you'd have the risk of a fraud alert to deal with, and sometimes even issues with the reporting of the CC itself. If I had that, I'd let it slide knowing that in less than a year, it won't impact anything by then.

If there's a charge through which a dispute was initiated due to a bad product, unreceived product, etc., always, always, always, pay it anyway. You'd get the money back if you win the dispute. The CCC is a neutral party to all of this. If the dispute comes back as not being in your favor, then your beef is with the vendor and not with the CCC. You'd sue the vendor for the amount.

[Anonymous]

Well the inq suppose to be soft but its hard and others. Chase told me they could not approve me because of the inq and I plan on calling to explain to them why I have them and maybe I could get them to recon the app.

I did pay it and I lost the dispute so im stuck paying it either way. What im mainly trying to do is pay off the cards with a small loan and pay the loan every month so I dont have a high balance on my cards. I mean if I could get a $500 loan, that would be great too because I could split it into 3 and apply it to the cards. I only use the cards to buy things online incase something does happen like what have happened with this because paying with just paypal is no go, and using my debit card most banks wont help out like creditors would.

[RobertEG]

The terms "hard" and "soft" inquiry, or any related terms, are not referenced in the FCRA.  The FCRA does not regulate the coding of credit inquiries.

A party either has a permissible purpose for the inquiry under section 604, or they do not.  They have a statutory requirement to provide the actual permissible purpose of their inquiry.  How do they shield that purpose from CR inclusion?  Are their CRA reporting codes that read "consumer-initiated request for credit, but dont put our inquiry in their credit report?"

Dispute over an inquiry would, in my opinion, have to challenge the accuracy of their permissible purpose, not its coding.

Disputes over inquiries are so time-consuming and generally of such relative insignificance that the credit industry was successful in getting regulators to totally exclude  any disputes over inquiries from the new direct dispute process.  Any dispute over an inquiry must be made through the CRA, who is the party who accepted the stated permissible purpose, and provided the credit report.  Not usually productive.  What would be the stated inacurracy in a dispute directed to them?  Administrative coding, when how that process actually works is unregulated, and not even published?  A promise to code in some unspecified manner?