When requesting the deletion of unauthorized hard inquiries from companies listed on my credit report...by law, do these companies have a timeframe that they need to complete this request? Or do they just need to respond to me within a certain timeframe.
Are they OCs or CAs? Are they just totally spurious, or did you have some contact with the inquirer but did not authorize the inquiry? If you were not opening an account, but already had an account, contact the company that pulled and have them recode them as "Account Review", or soft. The CRAs generally regard inquiries as just reporting of fact, and may, or may not, treat them as disputable, or may just refer you back to the company tha pulled the report. Some will remove them due to claims they were in error, and if id theft is involved, FACTA might be useable in forcing removal. In addition, they have been known to remove repeated inquiries from the same company made in a short time.
I have about 12 from OC's and 1 from a CA. I don't have accounts with any of the OC's nor have I applied for any credit with them. I was thinking of requesting removal of these inquiries from the OC's since what I have read on this forum that disputing them with the CRA's is pointless because they need authorization from the OC to remove. Do I need to state in my letter to the OC or CA that they need to respond within 30 days like the validation letter?
12 errors tends to imply some type of systematic problem, as opposed to independent random errors by the companies inquiring: misidentification, id theft, unauthorized e-loan application sent to a bunch of banks, etc. What other information is showing on your reports? Are you showing addresses that are not yours, erroneous identity information such as SSNs, names, or DOBs that are not yours, or other accounts, whether positive or negative, that are not yours? Does it look like your file is getting mixed with someone else's, or is there id theft possible? Is there possible confusion between your identity, and a similar identity such as that of a relative with a similar name, where at some point you had a common address?
Those are all great questions that I didn't consider initially...so far, at all 3 credit bureaus, my SSN, DOB, and accounts are correct. There are 2 variations of my name that are so far off that it looks like it was completely mispelled intentionally. And, I don't have any relatives with similar names. It could possibly be ID theft...someone is trying to apply for credit under my name, without suspecting that they wouldn't be approved because of my mid-500 credit scores! Sounds like I should dispute with the CRA's because of possible ID theft?
You have just pulled these reports. Can you give the CRAs a call and find out who is reporting the erroneous names? You might get enough clarification as to whether this is an identity/file mixup, or attempted id theft. Or you could call a couple of the OCs that show inquiries (choose ones most likely to be reputable), indicate that they are showing inquiries on your reports that you never initiated, and ask if anyone tried to open an account under your name or SSN.
I called the CRAs and apparently a CA was reporting the erroneous names. I requested to have them removed by the CRAs. I also mailed letters to companies about their unauthorized hard inquiry on my credit report, and so far, I have heard from one company, Chase. They replied with an apology and have sent a delete request to the CRAs.
"I called the CRAs and apparently a CA was reporting the erroneous names. I requested to have them removed by the CRAs. " Follow up in writing, sent CRRR, referencing your phone dispute. You want a written acknowledgement from the CRAs of their removals for your records.
