Remove unauthorized inquiry: Sample letter to credit bureau

Submitted by Richard on Sat, 07/22/2006 - 09:03
Forums

Hi,

I have prepared this sample letter that you may send to a credit bureau requesting an investigation of unauthorized inquiries appearing on your credit report. Ensure that you use fax or certified mail instead of ordinary mail to get a prompt response. Here's the letter:

Sample unauthorized inquiry removal letter to credit bureau

Your Name __________
Your Address __________
Your Phone # __________

Credit Bureau's Name ________________
Credit Bureau's address ________________

Date __________

Dear Sir or Madam,

RE: Investigation of unauthorized inquiries

While checking my personal credit report, which I acquired from your organization on [insert date of report], I noticed some unauthorized inquiries had been made.

I have tried to contact the concerned organization, who conducted the inquiries and asked them to remove credit inquiries from my credit profile. I have asked them to cease their illegal activities with immediate effect but with no results. Since I sent the letters more than 30 business days ago, they have failed to respond to and honor my request.

Therefore, I am forced to request your help in resolving this matter. In accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, I request that you start an investigation into the matter. After the investigation is complete, if you find my allegations to be correct, please remove the unauthorized inquiries and send me a fresh copy of my credit report at my current address. If you find the inquiries referenced above to be correct, kindly send me a description of the operation used in your investigation within 15 business days of the completion of the re-investigation.

Sincerely,

Your Signature _____________

Your Name ______________

Thank Richard for such a useful sample letter. People really look for these letters when in need. Can we have a separate sample letter section altogether?

Wed, 07/26/2006 - 11:45 Permalink

I too have similar opinion since I have seen other forums where these letters are hard to find in the jungle of posts.

But I think it will be better to have this sample letter section in our upcoming Wiki. This will help others as well to improve/update the content of the letters and at the same time add new ones.

~Carol

Tue, 08/01/2006 - 09:38 Permalink

Hi,

Thanks for your valuable feedbacks. I am sending them to our technical team for possible implementation.

Regards,
Richard

Thu, 08/03/2006 - 07:37 Permalink
BOBBIE (not verified)

I HAVE CALLED & VERIFIED WITH THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES THAT THESE ARE "SOLE ACCOUNTS" OF MY EX ONLY . I AM NOT ON THERE ANYWHERE. BUT THEY REFUSE TO REMOVE THEM FROM MY CREDIT. THEY SAID I WILL HAVE TO SUE THEM TO GET THEM REMOVED. I DONT HAVE THE TIME NOR THE MONEY FOR AN ATTY. ANY SUGGESTIONS??

Tue, 10/10/2006 - 15:05 Permalink

Talk to several attorneys and find one willing to do it on contingency. The court may award their fees to be paid by the party erroneously reporting.

How did you verify these as sole accounts?

Did the CC companies say their records show them as sole accounts? Did you dispute with them in writing? Did you dispute with the CRAs in writing? Are they being reported by the OC (the original CC company), or by a CA?

Are you saying that you never applied jointly with your husband? Were you an authorized user? Were these accounts opened after you separated or divorced? Are you in a community property state? What does your state law say about such debts if incurred while married?

Thu, 10/12/2006 - 03:57 Permalink

Yeah.......you should dispute them as not yours.
If you are only an authorized user on the accts, they will get deleted without a hassle.

Thu, 10/12/2006 - 04:00 Permalink
jimmy (not verified)

I have 5 hits on my credit report for 1 account they sold. they never contacted me about the account. is that legal

Mon, 01/22/2007 - 19:29 Permalink
hiblues (not verified)

for EQ, simply go online and do a dispute...
I had 12 inq's removed in less than 2 weeks..

for TU.. simply do soft pulls ( via there service) everyday for like a month, and
for whatever reason, the inq's start dropping off.

for EX, place a fraud alert on your report and then send a letter requesting that they remove x,y. z inq's.

Tue, 06/19/2007 - 20:30 Permalink

hi, hiblues...

What you said about EX, is very intersting... I would like to hear from anyone else who has tried this method...

Mon, 12/31/2007 - 00:01 Permalink

Well, I just saw the dates....my bad...

Hey Jimmy, if the account was sold, then it was in default.. The company who purchases the "bad account" can and will pull your credit..

Mon, 12/31/2007 - 00:03 Permalink

did you post it in the paper 3 times that you are not responsible for your xs bills this is whats required in some states to not be held accountable. especially if your names not on the account and you can verify the charges were made after the separation.

Mon, 01/07/2008 - 17:51 Permalink

Wasn't even aware you could post something like that in the paper. Wow.

Thu, 03/27/2008 - 21:22 Permalink

yeah you can post just about anything you want to if you are willing to pay for it.

Fri, 03/28/2008 - 00:43 Permalink

No point reviving this thread. Its dead.

Fri, 03/28/2008 - 07:32 Permalink

True, too bad there was not a way to archive older threads?????

Sat, 03/29/2008 - 11:23 Permalink
Maine-Maine (not verified)

I have already request investigation on 10 accts on my credit report-only 4 deleted. How would I about drafting a letter to disputing the rest items on my credit report?

Mon, 04/07/2008 - 23:44 Permalink

that is a great letter, very useful link for all of us here to use. thanks

Sun, 04/20/2008 - 00:05 Permalink

I think we should have all the posts like this in an article section. That way they would all be together.

Tue, 04/22/2008 - 01:21 Permalink

Kind opf like a resource center. It sure would make it handy for a person.

Wed, 04/23/2008 - 20:44 Permalink

How many visits the article section? I guess we could give them suggestions on what else is required from that section so that we can make it the way we want. Am I right?

Thu, 04/24/2008 - 06:02 Permalink

Could you do that Justin, can you pm the suggestion to whoever you need to pm it too, that would be great.

Sun, 04/27/2008 - 12:02 Permalink

So nothing in my personal box, guess Justin is not gonna send me it.

Thu, 05/15/2008 - 01:06 Permalink

Dry your eyes goodnatured maybe he will send something soon.

Sun, 05/18/2008 - 14:03 Permalink

I think we should decide on the topics which should be there in the article section for the help of forum members. We can directly post our needs through messages in the forum. I think, we ourselves can write articles and post it in the forum too.

Tue, 05/27/2008 - 08:35 Permalink
jerry (not verified)

can the company that inadvertently pulled your credit report several times (auto dealer accidently sent to several lenders. thinking it was another client. miscommunication at the dealership) how do they do that

Tue, 07/29/2008 - 21:33 Permalink

Probaly some mix up at their office. Were you there also for a car loan? If not I would inquire about it at the car lot and ask why they ran your credit without your consent. You would have to consent to have your credit pulled. If it was their error see what they can do to rectify the situation and also contact the credit bureau and explain this was done in error and tell them what the car company said.

Wed, 07/30/2008 - 11:34 Permalink

Hi Jerry
Each time the lender pulls up your credit report, it gets enlisted as a hard inquiry. Each hard inquiry lowers your credit score by as much as 5 points. However these hard inquiries are not valid until they get authorization from you to perform such inquiries as per the FDCP Act. So you can send a letter to the inquirer asking them to remove the hard inquiry listing from the credit report or verify your authorization. This is because if this listing remains in your credit report, it will adversely affect your credit score. In most cases these inquirers simply delete this listing because they cannot verify your authorization.

Thu, 07/31/2008 - 07:16 Permalink

Probaly would still take pulling teeth. One thing I have learned that it may be easy for people to do something simple but getting them to do it is usually an issue.

Tue, 08/05/2008 - 01:08 Permalink

Hi fireyone
The inquirers can easily remove the listing from your credit report by just making a simple request to the bureaus as goodnatured said. However they will only remove it, if it is unauthorized. Now if they don't remove the unauthorized hard inquiry listing from your credit report you may dispute the listing directly with the bureaus or you may even threaten the CA to complain against them to the State Banking Commission if they do not remove the unauthorized listing.

Tue, 08/05/2008 - 13:19 Permalink

Wow that really good info. I did not even know you could report them to the State Banking Commission. Actually I nevr even heard of such a thing. Thats something new I just learned and hope everyone else finds this info valuable also.

Wed, 08/06/2008 - 02:08 Permalink

There are many reporting entities out there that we as consumers can use to report abuse, we just have to find them and use them appropriately. The state banking commision in Pennsylvania has direct access to the attorney generals office and when those two get together for tea, somebody is going to answer some questions. These two are the ones that shut down the storefront payday loan vendors through out the state of pennsylvania. And they did it in a matter of months, they are all about protecting their consumers.

Wed, 08/06/2008 - 05:40 Permalink

What is " line number" ? My report just says who and when did the inquiry.

Fri, 07/03/2009 - 00:14 Permalink

Hi Sven:

Line number is the number of the line where the inquiry has been mentioned.

Parwin:

Letters of credit are the ones used to write letters to the creditors, collection agencies, credit bureaus, etc. These letters of credit can be like Dispute letter, Pay for delete letter, Debt validation letter, etc. However, I have never heard of Fresh letter of credit. Can I know here from have you got this phrase? This may mean sending a fresh or rather new letter.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Aaron

Thu, 06/03/2010 - 12:19 Permalink

I did not know that you could report anyone to the state banking commision either, will have to do some looking up on our states banking commission site. Thanks for the information.

Mon, 06/14/2010 - 03:44 Permalink

i read somewhere that credit bureaus will only consider removing inquiries that are more than two years old..is that correct?

Fri, 06/25/2010 - 01:03 Permalink

Hi vfsalinas,

Yes, hard inquiries that are two years old, and are still there on the credit report, can be disputed. Hard inquiries (authorized ones) cannot be removed before two years.

Thanks,

Aaron

Sat, 07/03/2010 - 11:05 Permalink

I have a couple inquiries on my credit report..on my credit report it states..."number of inquiries adversely affected credit score"... I hate that the just inquiries are affecting my credit score....Thanks for the good info....

Mon, 07/05/2010 - 02:11 Permalink
Barbara_Elena (not verified)

Yes, hard inquiries cannot be removed before 2 years, but make sure that you authorize all the credit inquires. If you find any unauthorized inquiry, make sure that you send a “remove inquiry letter” to the credit reporting agencies, to get the illegal inquiries immediately removed.

Sat, 07/10/2010 - 04:53 Permalink

Hi vfsalinas,

Can I know whether or not these inquiries are authorized ones?

Thanks,

Aaron

Fri, 07/16/2010 - 09:52 Permalink

You shared a really informatics format, it is useful for me, thanks for sharing it.

Wed, 06/05/2013 - 06:08 Permalink
crorkz matz (not verified)

gEg10N I cannot thank you enough for the blog article.Much thanks again. Awesome.

Tue, 08/05/2014 - 22:21 Permalink