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How to Remove Hard Inquiries From Your Credit Report

Published January 9, 2025

3 min read

Table of contents

Key points about: removing hard inquiries

You can’t remove a hard inquiry from your credit report if it’s legitimate.
You can dispute hard inquiries on your credit report that resulted from identity theft or fraud to have them removed.
Typically speaking, hard inquiries will naturally fall off your credit report after two years and usually impact your credit for much less time.

When you apply for a new credit card or another type of credit line, like a car loan or mortgage, it'll generate a hard credit inquiry on your credit report. A hard inquiry is when the lender reviews your credit report to assess your creditworthiness as part of the application process for new credit. A hard credit inquiry will typically impact your credit score, though how much depends on several factors in your credit history. If you have hard inquiries on your credit reports, you may wonder how–or if–you can remove them. Let's explore your options for how to remove a hard inquiry from your credit report.

Can you remove a hard inquiry from your credit report?

The short answer is no, you can't remove hard inquiries from your credit report if they're legitimate. However, if a hard inquiry is the result of identity theft or fraud, then you'd be able to dispute it and have it removed from your credit report.

If you have a hard inquiry on your credit report, you may not need to worry too much about removing it. According to FICO^®, most people won't see more than five points taken off their FICO^® Credit Score as the result of a hard inquiry.¹

If you have multiple hard inquiries, that may have a greater impact on your credit score. If you're planning to seek out credit from multiple lenders, or need different types of credit, it can help to understand how multiple hard inquiries may impact your credit.

How long hard inquiries stay on your credit report

Typically, a hard inquiry–also sometimes called a "hard credit pull" or "hard credit check"–will stay on your credit report for two years before falling off naturally. And even though hard credit inquiries may stay on your credit report for up to two years, your FICO^® Score only considers inquiries from the last 12 months, according to FICO^®.

How to dispute hard inquiries

A hard inquiry can be removed from your credit report if it was the result of identity theft or fraud. If you believe your personal identifying information has been compromised, like your Social Security number, it's a good idea to review your credit reports for hard inquiries you may not recognize.

If you find an unauthorized hard inquiry on your credit report, you can file disputes with each of the three major credit bureaus–Experian^®, Equifax^®, and TransUnion^®–to petition to have the hard inquiry removed.

Did you know?

A hard inquiry may ding your credit, but securing new credit may also help your credit score. A new credit card could help add to your credit mix, or boost your available credit and improve your credit utilization ratio, both factors in calculating credit scores. And with Discover, you can earn rewards on every purchase with your new credit card.

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A good credit score can open the door to new credit and better terms, but hard inquiries can ding your score. If you’re wondering if any can be removed, pull your free credit report and investigate to see if there are any unauthorized hard inquiries you can dispute. Otherwise, having one hard inquiry or even a few inquiries shouldn't be too much cause for concern and will naturally fall off your report in due time.

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