Person wearing glasses working on a laptop at home with a coffee mug nearby.

How to Remove Hard Inquiries From a Credit Report

3 min read

Last Updated: June 3, 2025

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

You can’t remove a legitimate hard inquiry from your credit report.
You can dispute unauthorized or illegitimate hard inquiries on your credit report.
Hard inquiries usually fall off your credit report after two years.

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 a lender reviews your credit report to assess your creditworthiness. This is part of the application process for new credit.

A hard credit inquiry will typically impact your credit score. How much it affects your score depends on several factors in your credit history. If you have hard inquiries on your credit reports, you may wonder how to remove them. Let's explore your options for how to remove hard inquiries from a 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, you can dispute it and have a credit bureau remove it from your credit report.

A single hard inquiry may reduce your credit score by a few points. Soft inquiries have no effect. You’ll see soft inquiries on your report if you try to pre-qualify for a credit card.

Multiple inquiries may have a greater impact on your credit score than a single one. If you're planning to seek out credit from multiple lenders, 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. The credit reporting agency will then remove it. Hard credit inquiries may not affect your credit score for the full two years, though.

How to dispute hard inquiries

A credit reporting agency can remove a hard inquiry 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. Look for hard inquiries you don’t recognize.

If you find an unauthorized hard inquiry on your credit report, you can file a dispute. Contact each of the three major credit bureaus–Experian^®, Equifax^®, and TransUnion^®–and ask them to remove the hard inquiry.

Did you know?

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

Learn More

The bottom line

A good credit score can open the door to new credit and better terms, but hard inquiries can impact your score. If you’re wondering if any can be removed, pull your free credit report. Investigate your report 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 they’ll fall off your report in due time.

You may also consider a credit monitoring service, like Discover Identity Theft Protection. These services issue fraud alerts. If you get a fraud alert, you can look for an unauthorized credit inquiry on your credit report. If you find an inaccurate hard inquiry, you can dispute it or issue a credit freeze.