How to Remove THD/CBNA from Your Credit Report
Did a hard inquiry from THD/CBNA lower your credit score? If so, you probably applied for a credit card from The Home Depot (THD) issued by Citibank North America (CBNA). If you tried to get pre-qualified for a card from The Home Depot, your report may have undergone a soft credit inquiry. If you took it a step further and applied for a card or loan from the retailer, the THD/CBNA entry on your report is a hard inquiry.
Whenever you apply for a retail credit card, the resulting hard inquiry can lower your credit score by a few points. You may also see the inquiry listed on your credit report. In most cases, these hard inquiries shouldn’t be concerning. However, if you’ve never applied for a card from The Home Depot, this entry shouldn’t be on your report and you may be a victim of fraud.
Keep reading to learn more about how a hard inquiry from THD/CBNA could impact your credit and find out how to get fraudulent entries off your report.
What is THD/CBNA on my credit report?
Citibank is a popular bank that provides credit cards for a wide range of retail stores, such as The Home Depot, Best Buy, Shell, ExxonMobil, L.L. Bean and others.
Citibank offers four credit options for The Home Depot shoppers, such as The Home Depot Consumer Credit Card, The Home Depot Commercial Revolving Charge Card, The Home Depot Project Loan and The Home Depot Commercial Account. When you apply for any one of these cards, loans or credit accounts, you authorize Citibank to run a hard credit check. You could also get a hard inquiry if you consent to be an authorized user for a friend or family member on one of these accounts.
How does a hard inquiry affect your credit report?
Normally, a hard credit inquiry isn’t a big deal. In fact, it shouldn’t have much of an impact on your credit report. Hard inquiries let businesses, like Citibank and The Home Depot, get an in-depth look at your credit history. With a hard inquiry, a lender might access your credit reports. Unfortunately, the inquiry may lower your credit score as a result.
Luckily, hard inquiries lower your score by only a couple of points, and they fall off your credit report in two years. However, if your credit history has had several hard inquiries within a couple of months, it can suggest you rely heavily on loans and credit cards. This could make you a less appealing applicant to future lenders. Having a few inquiries on your report is completely normal and shouldn’t worry you too much, especially if they’re spread across a couple of years.
If you’re concerned about having too many hard credit checks on your credit history, research creditors before submitting your next application. A lot of lenders are upfront about their basic score requirements and approval odds, helping you to sidestep any unnecessary inquiries. You can also find lenders who perform soft inquiries, which don’t damage your score.
How to remove THD/CBNA from your credit report
If you applied for a card or loan from The Home Depot or agreed to be an authorized user, then the hard inquiry on your report is legitimate. However, finding an inquiry from this retailer should cause you concern if you didn’t. Unauthorized inquiries could be the result of a reporting error, or they could suggest that someone is using your identity fraudulently.
There are several steps you can take to get this issue resolved. Here are some tips to help you get an unapproved hard inquiry off your report:
- Dispute the inquiry
- Monitor your credit
- Hire a credit repair company
Dispute the unauthorized hard inquiry with Citibank and the bureaus
The government created the Fair Credit Reporting Act to ensure that credit reports are fair and accurate. This law allows you to dispute hard inquiries you didn’t consent to. First, you should start by getting all the details you can from Citibank regarding the suspected fraud.
Here is Citibank’s contact information:
Citibank Customer Service
P.O. Box 6500
Sioux Falls, SD 57117
From there, you need to file a dispute with the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. When you file a dispute, the bureaus should launch an investigation into the entry. If it’s an error, the credit bureau agencies will delete the entry from your account.
If you suspect someone used your information to open an account with The Home Depot, you can go to identitytheft.gov to report it to the Federal Trade Commission. You may also freeze your credit reports, which alerts the bureaus to identity theft and cancels any potential hard inquiries.
Start monitoring your credit report
Every year, you can get a free copy of your credit report from each credit bureau by visiting annualcreditreport.com. You can also take a more proactive approach and enroll in credit monitoring.
There are many excellent credit monitoring apps that offer free and paid versions. These apps, like Credit Karma and Credit Sesame, come with several features, which may include:
- Regular score updates
- Notifications of new items on your report
- Resources for filing disputes
- Suggestions for improving your score
- A breakdown of your report
- Pre-approval offers and card recommendations
Regularly checking your credit can help you catch suspected identity theft in time and stop it from doing serious damage to your credit. Credit monitoring services can also help you to clear up reporting errors quickly and efficiently. These apps are easy to use, and the paid versions provide comprehensive protection.
Work with a credit repair company
If you don’t have the time or energy to work with credit bureaus and lenders to resolve an inquiry you never authorized, a credit repair company can help. Credit repair specialists dispute inaccuracies on your report and get them removed. They can also help you with a range of credit issues that have more of an impact on your score, such as:
- Bad payment history
- Bankruptcy
- Charge offs
- Collections agencies
- Foreclosure
- Judgments
- Lien
- Repossession
Whatever issues are plaguing your credit report, there are many credit repair companies to help you fix them and reach your financial goals.
Dealing with THD/CBNA on your credit report
Getting an inaccurate entry deleted from your credit report can be easy. While you may not be able to get an inquiry off your report after applying for a new credit card, you also don’t have to worry that it will cause extreme damage to your credit score. Unlike a collections account, which can stay on your report for seven years, a hard inquiry should be off in two years and may only slightly lower your score.
Instead of getting down about hard inquiries, try to use credit in ways that increase your score by paying your accounts on time, keeping your credit utilization low and having a variety of credit accounts. If you need to improve your credit score, consider hiring a credit repair company to help.
Disclaimer: This story was originally published on December 31, 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/