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Wondering about a credit inquiry from CBCInnovis on your credit report? An entry from CBCInnovis could relate to several types of loan applications. In most cases, you shouldn’t worry about this type of inquiry. However, it’s a good idea to take a closer look at the hard inquiry if you aren’t sure what prompted it.

This short guide will take you through the basics of hard credit checks, explain who CBCInnovis is and lay out the process of getting a fraudulent entry off your report.

CBCInnovis on my credit report

CBCInnovis probably isn’t a name you recognize on your credit report. While you may have applied for a loan from a popular lender or bank, its name isn’t necessarily the one that will appear on your credit report.

Instead, banks, lenders and other financial institutions turn to consumer credit reporting companies such as CBCInnovis to vet applicants. When you apply for a mortgage or other type of loan, CBCInnovis obtains your credit reports, providing lenders with the data they need to make a decision.

Recently, CBCInnovis merged with another consumer reporting company, Factual Data, and now operates under that name. That means your credit report could feature an entry from CBCInnovis or Factual Data when you apply for a loan.

How does a CBCInnovis hard credit inquiry affect your credit?

Whenever you apply for a loan or a credit card, lenders can access one or more of your credit reports. They do this to gauge if you’re a responsible borrower. When this happens, the credit agency adds a hard inquiry to your credit report.

Usually, hard inquiries have a minimal effect on your credit score, lowering it by a few points. At most, these inquiries stay on your report for two years, though they become less influential over time.

Lenders can access your TransUnion, Equifax or Experian credit reports, meaning an inquiry could affect any of your scores. When you have several hard inquiries on your report, they can have a more severe impact and suggest to lenders that you’re desperate for funding.

A hard credit pull differs from what’s known as a soft credit inquiry. Soft pulls happen when you check your score with a credit monitoring app or pre-qualify for loan offers.

How to remove CBCInnovis from your credit report

If you know that the inquiry from CBCInnovis is the result of a recent loan application, you don’t need to worry about asking the agency to remove it. Hard inquiries are an essential part of credit applications. As such, they don’t impact your credit too much.

That being said, if you didn’t apply for a loan in the last couple of years or consent to an inquiry, you shouldn’t leave the credit entry unchecked. If you’ve been the target of identity theft or inaccurate reporting, here are a couple of ways to get the entry deleted from your report.

Dispute the inquiry

If you suspect identity fraud or a reporting issue is to blame for a hard inquiry on your report, you can dispute it. The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows you 30 days to dispute inaccuracies on your credit report. If the dispute is valid, the agency will remove the entry.

You should file a dispute with the credit bureaus, which you can do online, on the phone or by mailing in a letter of dispute. You can also contact CBCInnovis directly to get more information about the inquiry and ask for deletion.

You can write to Factual Data (CBCInnovis’ parent company):

Factual Data
400 Holiday Dr.
Suite 300
Pittsburgh, PA 15220

The best way to stay on top of new additions to your report and catch inaccuracies in time to dispute them is to monitor your credit. You can do this with a free credit monitoring service, such as Credit Karma, or with a more comprehensive paid app.

These platforms send you regular alerts about your score, changes to your account and opportunities to improve your score based on your individual credit profile. You also get one free copy of your complete credit report each year at annualcreditreport.com.

Let a credit repair company help

Dealing with lenders and credit bureaus can be a time-consuming and monotonous task. If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of disputing entries, a credit repair company is a perfect solution. It’ll take a close look at your credit report to pinpoint all the issues.

That means it’ll dispute any inaccuracies on it and handle more challenging problems, too. To give you a better idea of what credit repair companies do, they’ve helped people recover from:

  • Bankruptcy
  • Charge offs
  • Debt in collections
  • Poor payment history
  • Foreclosures
  • Judgments
  • Liens

Whatever is bringing your score down, a credit repair agency can get to the bottom of it.

Getting CBCInnovis removed from your report

No one wants to see their credit score drop, but in most cases, a hard inquiry is of little concern. In two years, the inquiry will be a thing of the past.

To improve your score, you should focus on paying off your loans responsibly and using credit wisely. And if you feel like you could use some assistance, consider hiring one of the best credit repair companies for help.

To keep the damaging effects of hard inquiries to a minimum in the future, try to:

  • Make multiple mortgage applications within the same 14-day window.
  • Research the approval odds of loans before applying and incurring an unnecessary credit probe.

Update: This article has been updated to reflect current contact information for CBCInnovis.

Disclaimer: This story was originally published on December 18, 2020, on BetterCreditBlog.org. To find the most relevant information concerning collections or credit card inquiries, please visit: https://money.com/how-to-remove-collections-from-credit-report/ or https://money.com/get-items-removed-from-credit-report/

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