It ain't easy, but it has been done. One way is to go direct to the creditor and write a nasty letter about them not having PP (Permissible purpose). They can, and have, removed them from if they are at risk for the $1,000 per incidence fine for which they are liable.
I was able to get TU to remove all my inquiries just by calling in. I always got someone in India. I always gave them a hard time about not understanding them and asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor was able to remove the inquiries. One supervisor stated that by law they weren't able to remove inquiries. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he transferred me to someone in the US. I asked the lady why we weren't able to dispute inquiries and she asked me which inquiries and she took care of the last two that I had right away.
Experian is virtually impossible with their "statement of fact" posture. Seems rather illogical insofar as they are a sitting duck given the perfect factual circumstances . . .
I tried this 2 times and both times I was told the exact same thing from "TU's policy is that they do not dispute inquiries". I spoke to a supervisor and then his supervisor and then her supervisor and finally the supervisors supervisor. I think I'm just going to be patient and wait for them to fall off at the end of this year.
How can they get away without desputing? How can the CRA's get away without disputing inquiries. The FCRA is very clear that they are required to invesigate any item that is potentially harmful, and inquiries without permissable purpose can be damaging if there are enough of them.
Because the inquiry itself is not inaccuarte. Someone did actually view the credit report. Now, if that company didn't have a permissable purpose, they are liable for unlawfully accessing your data however the fact remains that they did in fact, view the report.
Well, this is where it gets a bit sticky, re: disputes and the FCRA. Yes, a consumer has the right to dispute information in their credit "file", for the reason of "inaccurate and/or incomplete" information. An inquiry doesn't nicely fit into this description of inaccurate/incomplete. Inquiries must be disputed on the basis of a lack of "permissible purpose", and the FCRA is loose in its definitions of "PP". Perhaps the best example is the right to pull a report for the reason of "...review for collections...". This is the one that hurts most people. There are three methods of removing inquiries (and none are consistently effective): 1) Dispute the "Permissible Purpose" with the CRAs, 2) Dispute/request removal directly with inquirer (again disputing PP, questioning legality of pull), 3) Overload "inquiry" space with "soft pulls" of your own report. It seems there is a limited "field space" for inquiries on reporting formats, and a high number of pulls of your own report bumps out some hard pulls.
How many does it take to "overload"? I've got 54 pulls through TrueCredit since I joined the beginning of February. When I printed my free report for dispute purposes the other day, I had 8 hard inquiries and all the inquiries combined started on page 6 and went through page 14. Pages 15 & 16 are FCRA stuff and the actual CR was pages 1-5. Seems like a lot of soft pulls, but doesn't seem to have affected my number of hard inquiries. I've been pulling a lot because I'm curious to find out how things are affecting my credit. I've got several items under dispute or resolution and I have 1 mortgage, 1 HELOC, and 1 boat loan that haven't hit the report yet so I'm pulling several times a week to see when changes take place and whether they make my score go up or down.
I'm not sure how many it takes, but there have been many success stories of pulling daily, sometimes several times daily, to "push" out hard inquiries. This seems to have been most successful w/TU. The thing to consider here is a possible "upgrade" by the CRAs for this "field space". One thing we CNers have to remember is our actions do cause a reaction with the CRAs. It is possible that some of the older methods are not as effective, or do not work, they way they used to. But you seem to be pulling a high number, it seems you should seem some effect.......
Yeah, there are actually more than 54 soft pulls, I just counted the ones I personally pulled. There are others that come from cards like WaMu and Tribute that pull the credit as part of a monitoring service they offer.(Ironically, the number the CC pulls is always different from what I'm pulling on TrueCredit, which is always different from my real FICO. That's no surprise to those of us who have dealt with this for a while...) The total soft pulls are more than 70 combined. I do have the fewest number of inquiries with TransUnion, but that seems to be because creditors only pulling from a single CRA, will most of the time pull Equifax, then Experian over TU. Right now I have 14 pulls with EQ, 10 with EX, and 8 with TU. And that's not because any have fallen off of TU, there have just been other creditors pulling only EX or EQ. I don't see any that pulled TU only.
I pulled my TrueCredit scores this morning, and guess what? TransUnion has dropped 2 inquiries! One was from 3/06, the other from 11/06. Those were the two oldest pulls recorded on TU. Perhaps all the soft pulls do work. Ironic it happened just when I was saying it didn't for me. As I keep pulling, I guess we'll see. I wish it would work with EX and EQ too.
Perhaps I'm wrong in this summation but, I digest the FCRA to prescribe that all information on a consumer credit report may be disputed by a consumer. Failure to do so would be a violation but, the rub is ascertaining damages by virtue of the aforesaid violation. I think it could be done given the perfect factual scenario. There is no authority on this topic but, I'm sure it has come close to heading before a bench or jury.
TU and EX I have been pulling my CR everyday since 13 May to get soft inquiries on my credit, and I have already dropped 2 inquiries from my TU and 2 from my EX off my report! Hopefully they will ALL be gone in a couple of months!!
Where have you been pulling them from? I've pulled both TransUnion's TrueCredit and Experian's Credit Expert almost daily since March and I've only seen TransUnion drop any inquiries. You may want to check and see if those were inquiries that would have dropped anyway (24 months old). Also, had you disputed any of the ones that dropped off? I would think it unusual to have 2 drop off after such a short time of soft pulls - unless you mean May 13, 2006.
No, May 13, 2007.I have been using truecredit. I do have 33 inquiries on my EX and 11 on my TU. I have not disputed any of them yet. And they were not to come off until August of this year. It may be unusual- but they did come off. I have proof Didn't you just say you pulled your credit once, and two inquiries were removed?
Unless someone can prove me wrong.... there is no way to bump inquiries off of Experian. Bumping works perfectly for Equifax and Transunion. However, EQ is so easy that you can just call in or dispute the inquiries online. I subscribe to Truecredit, credit alert, and american express credit secure. I've been using them daily for a while and no inquires have been dropped from my Experian credit file. I hate Experian.
No, I actually had close to 70 soft pulls before a couple dropped from TransUnion. Of course, I only had 8 on TU, 10 on EX, and 14 on EQ.
Pulled TrueCredit this morning an another 2 inquiries dropped from TransUnion. I'm down to 4 with them now. Apparently this does work! I know Experian is out of the question, but what has worked for people with Equifax? Will the soft pulls eventually work, or do I have to call them and dispute? If soft pulls work, do I have to do them with Equifax's product, or will TrueCredit pulls work?
