All, I need your help in resolving an inquiry item on my Experian credit report. An inquiry is reporting as a hard and soft for the same day. I spoke to the creditor this morning and he had no idea what was the difference between Soft and Hard. What is the best way I could explain it to him and document it? Here is the letter he wrote that he said would help me. I am not to sure and request guidance: "I am providing this letter at your request to confirm that any inquiry on your credit report associated with the above mentioned account number was part of XXXXX's normal process for credit qualifying new customers for service. Your account has been in good standing with XXXXX since its inception on 12/12/2001." Any examples out there that may be able to better explain the situation where he could sign off and I could send it to Experian? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Gavenraj
That is the definition of a hard inquiry. What was the inquiry for? Did you apply for credit, in which you went through the "normal process for credit qualifying new customers for service"? -Peace, Dave
Hey, Sounds like his letter is stating that you applied for credit and that is it. You could probably tell him: A hard inquiry is an inquiry that is made when someone pulls your credit report and the inquiry will be seen by anyone else that pulls my credit. Usually I must give my permission for this type of inquiry to be pulled. This has a negative impact on my score. A soft inquiry is an inquiry that is made when someone is trying to pre-approve you for credit, or when a company is doing an annual review. Usually this inquiry doesn't receive my permission. This inquriy is only seen my myself. This is where it gets tricky. People say soft inquries don't affect your score, some say they do. I think they do. Is this what you needed? By the time I posted this, Nave had given a much better answer as usual
I applied for drinking water (Water bottles). This totally sucks. I will give him a call stating the two defintions but a letter would be very helpful and I would be very grateful. Thanks, Gavenraj
That's too funny, I thought your answer was better ) maybe between us we got the gist across LOL. Anyway: Unfortunately your only recourse at this point would be to dispute the inquiry with the CRA and see if they will delete it. It is a process that will get results about 1/4 of the time. 3 of 4 inquiry disputes are instantly rejected by the CRA's (no accurate statistics here just espousing) and they send back an instant response saying something like "Inquiries are a matter of fact" blah blah blah. If the dispute does get entered into the system you have a good chance of it getting deleted. All of my inquiry disputes that have been entered (log in to my online report and I see "Dispute in process" or "in-dispute results expected xx/xx/2002" or smething like that) have been deleted folowing the dispute. Sorry to be no real help in the matter, but at least an inquiry is not TOO bad. After 6 months the effects are minimal and the effects are completely gone from scoreing models in one year. I didn't know you gave your SS# for water...but you learn something new everyday...did you have to rent the water cooler or something? You might try and hammer the creditor again saying you had no idea your credit would be pulled and you demand they delete the inquiry...are you a customer now??? or did the whole deal fall through? If you are a customer, maybe they will delete it to keep you a customer. Always worth a shot. Anyone know if water delivery companies have a retention department?? LOL Good Luck Gavenraj -Peace, Dave
No Dave, But losing FICO points for water is pretty nauseating. I guess someday we'll be killing each other for fresh air. LOL
