I stupidly got tricked into allowing a credit inquiry (paying, rates, dispute)
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I was trying to check and see how close I was to qualifying for a mortgage to purchase a second home.
On the phone with a lender, I let him convince me that mortgage credit inquiries were different than regular inquiries. He did a whole big song and dance about how they are like soft inquiries, and don't hurt credit. After me stating that I didn't believe him, he said, "You can check what I am saying on myfico.com"
Well, my idiot self, against my better knowledge, decided to believe him. I let him run my credit.
So, today, my credit dropped 9 points when the inquiry showed up.
I did give him permission, so it's a legit inquiry. But he lied and deceived me to get my permission.
This would be the 5th in 6 months. I'm generally very good with credit. Still have a score in the upper 700s. I purchased a car for my husband, and leased a car for myself. Then we moved, so I have the lease/rental credit check, and the electrical company check. This makes the 5th one.
I have no other inquiries in the last 2 years. They just came in a rash all at once.
I'm just incredulous that the lender was deceitful and that I fell for it. I can't believe I fell for it. I know better. I know what affects credit. He was just so convincing. It's not even the 9 points as much as it is the point of the matter itself. And in about 6 months when I am ready to actually buy, it'll make 6 inquiries in a year. Urgh~
Question is... does it even matter? Did it affect your interest rates? Did it do anything? a 790 to a 781 is nothing... scores fluctuate all the time even without anything happening... my score swings +/- 15 points for nothing other than paying my bills on time...
Sorry... Not upper 700s, mid. It went from 745 to 736. Some use 740 as a threshold for the best interest rates. And it does matter, to me.
They were deceitful and it caused harm. That is not OK just because the harm was small. It is very hard to get a credit score to go up. It could take a year or more for the score to float back up to 745.
Is it gonna cause me to get denied a mortgage? No. But to me, that's not the point.
The point is that he told me 3 times that he was running a different kind of inquiry that would not harm my score.
My question is, in the opinions of the posters here, do I have hope of getting this removed? If I send letter to Equifax, Transunion, Experien, will it get removed? or am I wasting my time since I actually gave him permission.
I've heard inquiries are harder to remove than negative information.
As far as for scores fluctuating, mine dropped from 760+ to 745 after purchasing and leasing the two cars. Since then, it has been perfectly steady. I check it like once a week. It dropped the day the 5th inquiry was reported. Mine doesn't fluctuate much, generally.
No. That truly is a soft request. I check mine about once a week, have for years, never even shows as an inquiry.
In fact, you sometimes have dozens of inquiries from people who already have issued you credit. They check all the time to see if you are going nuts with other credit cards. They make decisions like raising or lowering your interest or limits by doing this. Those don't count either, since you aren't giving permission for it.
That's what got me to believe him. He used the term, "Soft" and there is such a thing as a soft inquiry.
You are legally entitled to each of the three credit reports, for free, once a year. It doesn't harm your credit. However, I think they will charge you extra for the score.
I've never heard of a mortgage credit inquiry as anything other than a hard hit on your report. The guy was unethical for sure but ultimately you allowed him to run your credit.
You could dispute it with the credit agency and say you did not give them permission to do a "hard inquiry" on your report, which is the truth if the dialog with the lender was as you say.
I would dispute it online and see what happens. Good luck. I hope you get it off there.
Well at least he didnt run it 18 times! When we were looking to purchase a house our realtor set us up with her "best" mortgage guy. I didnt like him but we decided to let him look into getting us a mortgage. It took forever to get a pre approval and after a month we told him to forget it. I found my own mortgage person, was pre approved within a few hours and we were off house hunting. We closed on our house and a few months later decided to buy a car. Our FICO score dropped a 100 points. I thought for sure we were victims of credit fraud. I pulled up our reports and was stunned by all the hard inquires. Most of them counts as one inquiry but according to Transunion they are viewing it as 18. So there is a significant difference in our FICO between Equifax and Transunion. Either way it hurt our credit badly. That was over a year ago and it will be dropping off soon (it takes 2 yrs). This has never happened to us before and now I am very cautious on who I give permission too. Lesson learned.
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That was over a year ago and it will be dropping off soon (it takes 2 yrs). This has never happened to us before and now I am very cautious on who I give permission too. Lesson learned. 
