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  1. Credit Cards
  2. credit repair

How to Remove CitiCards CBNA from Your Credit Report

By:
Money Staff
4 min read

If you discover a hard inquiry from CitiCards CBNA on your credit report, you've probably applied for one of Citibank's credit cards, so it's nothing to worry about. However, if you haven't applied, it could be a reporting error, or someone may have stolen your identity.

What is CitiCards CBNA?

Citibank North America uses the code CitiCards CBNA to represent all its credit cards on credit reports. Citibank offers several Visas and Mastercards with different benefits and for different purposes, including:

Should you apply for a Citibank credit card, this will result in a hard inquiry appearing on your credit report, which could lower your credit score.

How does a hard inquiry from CitiCards CBNA affect your credit score?

Applying for any form of credit requires you to consent to lenders examining your entire credit history, otherwise known as a hard inquiry, prior to approving you for a loan or credit card.

Hard inquiries appear on your credit report for two years and can reduce your credit score, but the effects diminish over time.

Lenders can apply for your reports from any or all of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), and your credit score with whichever bureaus they check may reduce.

Although you shouldn't worry about one hard inquiry on your report, several can affect your score significantly. So only apply for credit you're likely to get to keep hard inquiries to a minimum.

Soft inquiries

Soft inquiries result from you, lenders or other companies checking your credit score, don't affect your score and may not appear on your credit report.

How to remove CitiCards CBNA from your credit report

If you find a questionable entry on your credit report, it is possible to remove it.

Dispute it with Citibank and the credit bureaus

Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can dispute any suspect entries on your report. Contact Citibank and the relevant bureaus online, by phone or by mail, and do this within 30 days of noticing an inquiry you don't recognize.

Engage a credit repair company

Credit repair companies retain specialists that could help you dispute an unwarranted hard inquiry on your report and can also assist with other credit issues, including:

Monitor your credit score

A credit monitoring service, such as Credit Sesame or Credit Karma, will alert you to changes in your credit report, enabling you to respond to an erroneous entry within the 30-day limit.

Although maintaining a credit card can improve your credit score, applying for one will result in a hard inquiry.

If you have recently applied for a Citibank credit card, a hard inquiry from CitiCards CBNA is of no concern. If you haven't, however, you should dispute it with Citibank and the bureaus within 30 days.

If you feel you could benefit from professional assistance, consider engaging a credit repair company.

Disclaimer: This story was originally published on December 23, 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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