Will Inquiries On My Credit Report Hurt My Score?
During the period of time of your Lease purchase contract (usually 1 to 3 years), it is important to work to increase your credit score in order to qualify for a bank loan at the end of the option term.
Did you know whenever a credit inquiry is done, your score goes down? Getting financing can be challenging if you have a low fico score. However, there are ways to delete inquiries from your credit report before the normal 2 year time period. Whether any negative information is on your account or not it does not matter. The most important question is, can the item be verified?
A Soft Inquiry (i.e. whenever you request a copy of your own credit report) does not impact your credit score negatively. So, it is always a good idea to check your credit report to verify where you stand.
Inquiries that can hurt your score are called “hard inquiries” and they do impact your fico score and all creditors can view it. If you have a lot of hard inquiries (when you request and authorize a creditor to pull your credit report) you will probably have a hard time getting loans or other type of financing.
You can learn how to remove inquiries from your credit report before you apply for any financing. A important step to start repairing your credit is by ordering all three of your reports. Each bureau report will include an inquiry section, and each one will include two types of inquiry, soft and hard.
Take your time to identify the items you want to challenge. Then, start writing ”dispute letters” in order to remove the negative credit from your report. Once the bureau receives your dispute letter they will investigate the item. The bureau has to respond to your request in timely manner, so it is important to send your letter via registered mail. The confirmation is a legal proof you have against them. According to the “Fair Credit Reporting Act” congress passed to protect the consumer, bureaus must investigate and remove inaccurate or unverifiable item.
Other facts that will affect your credit score are: 35% is made up of payment history, 30% is based on your current debt, 15% is made up of how long your credit history is (the longer the better), 10% is made up of new credit applications within the last 2 years (hard inquiries), 10% of made up of the types of credit in use (home loans, credit cards, auto loans etc.) The more diverse, the better.
Bottom line: keep your inquiries in check. Dispute them, if needed. It can save you thousands.
