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How to Remove Credit Plus Inquiry from Your Credit Report

By:
Money Staff
7 min read

Is a Credit Plus inquiry negatively affecting your credit report? If you noticed a new entry from Credit Plus, the unfamiliar name might have raised some concerns. This particular entry is probably the result of a hard inquiry prompted by a mortgage application.

When you apply for a loan, lenders access your credit reports, often employing the services of an agency like Credit Plus.

Credit Plus inquiry on my credit report

Credit Plus is a third-party mortgage verification provider. Mortgage lenders hire this company to obtain applicants’ credit reports. The organization specializes in tri-merge credit reports, which are special hybrid credit reports that bring together data from your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion reports.

Additionally, Credit Plus assists lenders at several steps in the mortgage process, including:

The step above that’s most likely to put Credit Plus on your report is the application.

How does a hard credit check affect your report?

When you apply for a mortgage or any other type of loan or credit account, a lender or creditor may open a hard inquiry on your credit history. When a prospective lender opens a hard inquiry, it simply means someone is reviewing your report, but this comes with a few consequences.

When a mortgage company opens a hard inquiry, it appears on your credit report, which remains there for two years. The inquiry lowers your score, usually by a couple of points. This differs from a soft inquiry, which happens when you pre-qualify for a loan. Hard inquiries give lenders a glimpse into your history of borrowing to see if you act responsibly with loans and credit cards.

A tri-merge report pulls the data that is most relevant to a mortgage. Since a tri-merge report incorporates information from all your reports, each of your scores may drop and all three reports may feature an entry.

How to remove Credit Plus from your credit report

If you applied for a mortgage that prompted the Credit Plus inquiry or consented to be a cosigner for another person’s mortgage, there’s not much you can do to get the inquiry off your report. If you didn’t do either of those things, you should use the advice below to get the hard inquiry removed from your credit report.

Dispute the hard inquiry with Credit Plus and the bureaus

An inaccurate inquiry is likely the result of:

Identity theft can wreak serious havoc on your credit, so it’s important to get to the bottom of questionable activity on your credit report. According to The Fair Credit Reporting Act, credit bureaus must investigate the situation if you dispute a hard inquiry on your report.

You should start by contacting a representative at Credit Plus. Explain the situation and get details on the mortgage application that set the inquiry in motion. After you’ve learned why the company opened the inquiry on your report, you can take your dispute to the credit bureaus.

You can file a claim one of three ways:

Here is the contact information and address for Credit Plus:

Credit Plus
31550 Winterplace Parkway
Salisbury, MD 21804

Phone: 800-258-3488
Email: support@creditplus.com

The bureaus have 30 days to investigate the inquiry. If the bureaus find that it’s an error, those companies delete the fraudulent entry from your report.

By signing up for free credit monitoring, you’ll be able to review changes to your account as soon as they occur. The company sends you routine updates and will alert you any time a creditor or loan company adds something to your report.

With certain credit monitoring companies, such as Credit Karma, you’ll also get a lot of resources for improving your score and receive information about new offers on credit cards and loans that allow customers to reach their financial goals.

Contact a credit repair company

If you dread the thought of confronting Credit Plus and filing disputes with the three credit bureaus, you don’t need to go through this process alone. For a reasonable fee, you can employ a credit repair company to take care of improving your score and disputing inaccuracies.

Along with tackling hard inquiries, these companies also help their customers recover from the following negative financial events:

Research lists of reputable credit repair companies to choose a good fit for your financial situation. A consultation with one of these companies can be highly valuable and help you decide whether their services are right for you.

Getting Credit Plus removed from your report

If you’re still uncertain about the origins of the Credit Plus entry on your report, you have other options. Due to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting the entry removed from your report.

If you applied for a mortgage that prompted the inquiry, it shouldn’t cause you too much concern. Hard inquiries are some of the least impactful entries to have on your credit report. Instead of concentrating on hard inquiries, ensure more significant factors, like your payment history and credit utilization, aren’t negatively affecting your credit score. Keep in mind you can use a credit repair company to improve those, too.

Disclaimer: This story was originally published on January 14, 2021, 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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