Credit repair should address everything that can improve your credit score. As you proofread your credit you may spot credit inquiries that you do not recognize. So logically these should be added to the list of items you will dispute as part of your credit repair process. Or maybe not! Inquiries are not always what they seem; if you want to make the most of your credit repair effort you should understand what type of inquires are a problem, and which are not.
Credit Repair and the Inquiry Time Out
Inquiries will fall off your credit report two years after the date of the occurrence. And the impact of an inquiry on your credit repair project can vary. The impact of a single inquiry will be between 2 and 5 points. The actual amount of the score hit will depend on the overall content of your credit report. The more established and perfect your credit, the less of an impact. And the more limited and compromised your credit is the more of an impact the inquiry will have. In addition, the impact of an inquiry will fade rapidly. Inquiries over one year old are rarely worth contesting as they have such a tiny effect. The exception would be a situation where there are multiple inquiries which when considered together may be a significant problem. Credit repair requires careful judgment.
The Inquiry Philosophy and Exceptions
Inquiries have a negative impact on your score because they indicate that you are about to incur new debt. Remember that the FICO scoring model is designed to measure the risk of lending money. If you are about to incur new debt your budget will be facing a new challenge. Hence, The FICO model will warn any prospective lenders of this increased risk by lowering your credit score. The creators of the FICO scoring model have made two interesting exceptions to their normal approach to inquiries. These two exceptions are meant to allow for intelligent interest rate shopping and include automobile financing and mortgage inquiries. You may have as many auto and mortgage inquiries in any 45 day period of time and they only count as a single inquiry for score purposes.
Credit Repair and Your Priorities
You want to focus your energy on the issues that will produce the greatest credit repair results. Unless your credit is quite good to begin with it is unlikely that inquiries will rise to the top of your credit repair priority list. On the other hand, once you have cleaned up the larger, more important items it can be very satisfying to clean up these small items. Make your credit repair effort in an intelligent and organized fashion and you will be thrilled with the results. Good luck!