In April of 2000, I obtained an auto loan from GMAC/Nuvell Financial. At that time the dealer and GMAC pulled my husband and my credit report 5 and sometimes 6 times, depending on which CRA we are talking about. I sent a dispute letter to Trans Union which operates a "local" branch called Merchant's Association Credit Bureau and asked them to remove all but 1 inquiry from our reports and this is the response I received: Dear Consumer: This will acknowledge the receipt of your recent inquiry. The inquiries shown on your report are FACTUAL. They can only be entered on your report when an inquiry is in fact made. These inquiries will remain on the file for two years. The inquiries which appear on your file are due to the existing accounts which you presently maintain with the creditor. When you enter into an agreement with a specific lender they may retrieve your credit file to review your existing account, or for collection purposes. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that inquiries be recorded for a minimum of one year if credit related and two (2) years if related to employment. It is our policy to report all inquiries for a period of two (2) years. Please include the file number from the upper right hand corner on all future correspondence with the credit bureau. If you have any further questions you may contact us directly at blah blah blah. Sincerely, Consumer Relations Department Now what do I do? They refuse to remove all but one inquiry and quote the FCRA, I thought a creditor could only put one inquiry for one loan???
Supposedly, all inquiries for car and mortgage loans within a 2 week duration only count as 1 inquiry as far as FICO is concerned. I have my doubts. Send a dispute letter to each CRA and claim "I did not authorize this inquiry and have never done business with this company. Remove this inquiry immediately." Only dispute a few inquiries at a time. If they send you another BS letter, call them directly, get their name, and tell them you are recording the conversation. They may change their tune. Most importantly, educate yourself about FCRA and credit. MikeB MikeB
HELP! Inquiries Author: Lucy (dt150n98.tampabay.rr.com) Date: 04-14-01 08:45 The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that inquiries be recorded for a minimum of one year if credit related and two (2) years if related to employment. It is our policy to report all inquiries for a period of two (2) years. `````````````````````````````````` REP.===The FCRA permits it does not require-There is a vast difference between the meanings of permits and requires!! ALSO by their own defination their policy of reporting credit related inquiries for 2 Yrs is in violation of the FCRA:
Mike, I have a new car loan with GMAC/Nuvell Financial. It is listed on my credit report. I cannot dispute that I have never done business with this company!
They shouldn't have pulled more than one merged report. You could have asked to see your FICO score every time they pulled your report to see if your score dropped for inquiries. If they won't let you, walk out and tell them you know someone else that will. They will most likely let you see then. Also, regarding what lb posted above, that might explain why inquiries only hurt your score for one year only and not for the two years that they are posted by the CRAs. MikeB
Call the creditor and ask them to remove it. If you catch someone on a good day they will. I've done this w/credit card companies who pulled hard copies for ARs and I asked that they either reclassify it or remove it. they removed it.
