Hard Inquiries: What Counts and What Does Not
Inquiries are the most over-disputed item on credit reports. Here is when a dispute is actually appropriate.
Hard vs soft
A hard inquiry is recorded when you apply for credit. A soft inquiry — prequalification, your own report check, account review — is visible only to you and never affects scoring.
The real impact
Usually a few points, fading within months, and gone from the report in two years. Several applications in a short span matter more than any single one.
Rate shopping
Mortgage, auto, and student loan applications inside a short window are typically treated as one event by most scoring models. Card applications are not.
When a dispute is appropriate
Only when you never authorized the pull. An inquiry from an application you actually submitted is accurate, and disputing it wastes a round and undermines the credibility of your other disputes.
Next step
List every inquiry and match it against applications you remember. Dispute the genuine strangers, and let the rest age off.
Stop reading about disputes. Start sending them.
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