Three hard inquiries on my credit report?!

[Amethyst]

Like many here, I check my credit regularly on Credit Karma, etc.

I was shocked to see that my report reflected three "hard" inquiries, as I haven't so much as opened a new credit card in more than a year.

I don't see anything else amiss on the report, and my score remains high.

How can I fix this? Do I need to freeze my credit?

Thanks,

Amethyst

 

[freedomatlast]

Do I need to freeze my credit?

I surely would. My credit is frozen for this exact reason. And it's easy enough to unfreeze it for a day or two if needed.

 

[Aerides]

That's very unusual - where did these inquiries come from? Is there any association with your current accounts or do they all look look fraud attempts?

I don't freeze myself, but 3 in short order might make me a bit concerned.

(I don't, because I'm terrible with passwords and unlocking and would be more likely to find myself locked out at the worst time, than save myself from a fraud, so I monitor and get notifications on stuff like this).

 

[braumeister]

My record has been frozen for years on all the agencies. It saves me a lot of worry and has never been a problem. On the rare occasions I want to open a new credit card, I just ask them which agency they use and unfreeze it there for a day.

 

[REWahoo]

My record has been frozen for years on all the agencies. It saves me a lot of worry and has never been a problem. On the rare occasions I want to open a new credit card, I just ask them which agency they use and unfreeze it there for a day.

^ This.

Froze my credit record several years ago and never had an issue on the very rare need to unfreeze for a day or two.

 

[donheff]

My record has been frozen for years on all the agencies. It saves me a lot of worry and has never been a problem. On the rare occasions I want to open a new credit card, I just ask them which agency they use and unfreeze it there for a day.

^ This.

Froze my credit record several years ago and never had an issue on the very rare need to unfreeze for a day or two.

Well, sorta this. My credit has been frozen for years too but the few times I needed to unfreeze it, I had to unfreeze all of the three major agencies. This was for a car loan (took advantage of low interest rates), mortgage for DD, and a credit card points deal. None of them would say, just do Equifax or whatever.

 

[VanWinkle]

Like many here, I check my credit regularly on Credit Karma, etc.

I was shocked to see that my report reflected three "hard" inquiries, as I haven't so much as opened a new credit card in more than a year.

I don't see anything else amiss on the report, and my score remains high.

How can I fix this? Do I need to freeze my credit?

Thanks,

Amethyst

Yes, freeze it as it is easy to do, and easy to unfreeze when needed. Freeze with all 3 or 4 credit bureaus.

I did this in 2018 and it has been simple to open when needed.

VW

 

[Another Reader]

I would be concerned about the hard inquiries. Are they from companies with whom you have accounts? If not, someone with your personal information may have tried to open accounts in your name. In your shoes, I would track these inquiries down.

 

[Dash man]

I freeze my credit. Two of them, Experian and Equifax have apps that use facial recognition to open, so literally in seconds I can unlock those accounts. TransUnion allows it through a website that is also easy to access with a password manager.

 

[COcheesehead]

Hard inquires are one of things that dings your score. They will take a year to fall off.

 

[Amethyst]

That is my fear. I'm not sure where to start about tracking down the inquiries. Do I write to the credit reporting agencies? What's the procedure?

I would be concerned about the hard inquiries. Are they from companies with whom you have accounts? If not, someone with your personal information may have tried to open accounts in your name. In your shoes, I would track these inquiries down.

 

[COcheesehead]

That is my fear. I'm not sure where to start about tracking down the inquiries. Do I write to the credit reporting agencies? What's the procedure?

If you use CreditKarma, go to your score, page down and you should see this box. Click on view details. It should show you exactly who did the hard inquiries

 

[TripleLindy]

Like many here, I check my credit regularly on Credit Karma, etc.

I was shocked to see that my report reflected three "hard" inquiries, as I haven't so much as opened a new credit card in more than a year.

I don't see anything else amiss on the report, and my score remains high.

How can I fix this? Do I need to freeze my credit?

Thanks,

Amethyst

As others have said, freeze your credit. It used to be harder to freeze/unfreeze, but now takes a matter of seconds. I think credit reports will show the inquiries. If you did not authorize them, you should be able to have them removed. That’s not from any area of expertise on my part, just speculation.

 

[Another Reader]

That is my fear. I'm not sure where to start about tracking down the inquiries. Do I write to the credit reporting agencies? What's the procedure?

Your source does not provide a credit history or report? A lot of credit cards provide free credit scores and histories. I also have Credit Karma from many years ago that identifies the party pulling the report.

 

[easysurfer]

I have 2 frozen and one locked.

 

[jazz4cash]

That is my fear. I'm not sure where to start about tracking down the inquiries. Do I write to the credit reporting agencies? What's the procedure?

Don't they tell you who the inquiries are from?
I do check my credit report regularly, but I don't get into the details like hard vs. soft because I think the scoring aspect is a scam. I always see who the inquiry is from but sometimes it is a 3rd party (like CREDCO) that I do not recognize hired by an entity that I do recognize. I was surprised to see how often my banks and insurance companies would run a check even though I did not have any changes to my account. If you are concerned you should block your credit but I have yet to take that step

 

[COcheesehead]

Don't they tell you who the inquiries are from?
I do check my credit report regularly, but I don't get into the details like hard vs. soft because I think the scoring aspect is a scam. I always see who the inquiry is from but sometimes it is a 3rd party (like CREDCO) that I do not recognize hired by an entity that I do recognize. I was surprised to see how often my banks and insurance companies would run a check even though I did not have any changes to my account. If you are concerned you should block your credit but I have yet to take that step

Hard inquiries in my experience are very rare.

 

[Another Reader]

That is my fear. I'm not sure where to start about tracking down the inquiries. Do I write to the credit reporting agencies? What's the procedure?

Your source does not provide a credit history or report? A lot of credit cards provide free credit scores and histories. I also have Credit Karma from many years ago that identifies the party pulling the report.

 

[audreyh1]

I have gotten hard inquiries from opening credit union accounts before. It’s one of several reasons I don’t open new FCU accounts anymore.

 

[SecondCor521]

Generally speaking, hard inquiries are when you ask for new credit and are less frequent and ding your score; soft inquiries are when banks and CCs are monitoring you and are more frequent and don't ding your score.

If you have three hard inquiries, you should be able to see who they are from and the date they were made. Each should correspond in some way to you either opening a new credit card, opening a new bank account, asking for a credit limit increase, maybe shopping for a mortgage or a car loan, or maybe changing your auto insurance.

There may be a phone number provided with the credit inquiry and you can call that number to ask them why they did a hard pull.

If you can't get any answers, then you can certainly dispute the hard inquiries and they should go away if you didn't authorize them.

Then you can freeze your CRs if you want too.

Note that in some credit reports, they might combine hard and soft pulls, or it may be unclear. So you may have three soft pulls, which are probably not a problem. But with soft pulls they should be from someone you already do business with. You can find the date of a soft pull as well, but they just sort of check on whatever schedule they decide, so the date on a soft pull may not mean anything to you.

 

[calmloki]

Couple years back when i was opening a lot of cards for the bonus bennies we got new internet service. Spectrum screwed up and did not one, but TWO hard pulls on our credit. Couldn't do anything about it after the fact. Them being for the $50~ auto-pay just jacked my jaw. took months for them to drop away.

 

[Sunset]

OP - I have credit freezes on. It's easy to temporarily unfreeze. Takes 10 minutes to do all 3 for a day when I apply for a new CC on my computer.

When you do set the freeze, write down ALL the answers and code/PIN numbers they give you, as some are needed to unfreeze.

 

[COcheesehead]

The hard inquiries should be easy to identify. I’d like to hear from the OP again as to the source.

 

[jazz4cash]

Hard inquiries in my experience are very rare.

I only use the Credit Journey feature from Chase. It’s free even without a Chase account. Here is how they describe a hard inquiry. It doesn’t sound rare:

“There are 2 kinds of inquiries. A hard inquiry, which is also called a hard credit check, occurs when you apply for a credit card, auto loan or mortgage. A soft inquiry, or soft credit check, happens when an employer does a background check or when you get pre-approved for a credit card.”

It seems like a hard inquiry is initiated by the consumer so the OP’s case seems suspicious and potentially fraudulent.

 

[COcheesehead]

I only use the Credit Journey feature from Chase. It’s free even without a Chase account. Here is how they describe a hard inquiry. It doesn’t sound rare:

“There are 2 kinds of inquiries. A hard inquiry, which is also called a hard credit check, occurs when you apply for a credit card, auto loan or mortgage. A soft inquiry, or soft credit check, happens when an employer does a background check or when you get pre-approved for a credit card.”

It seems like a hard inquiry is initiated by the consumer so the OP’s case seems suspicious and potentially fraudulent.

I have only had two hard inquires in the last five years or so. So for me, as I said above, in my experience, they are rare.