We were recently featured on channel seven’s Today Tonight; the topic was how credit applications can damage people’s credit files.
It was interesting that despite mostly positive feedback we did experience a credit repair company demanding an apology as in their opinion the story was inaccurate as they felt genuine credit enquires could be removed from a credit file.
I am unsure what would motivate another credit repair company to make such a bold comment however I feel I need to set the record straight.
The bottom line is a genuine credit enquire or application cannot be removed from a credit file, period.
The key word is genuine. Credit repair is all about the law and any credit listing including enquires can only be removed on the basis of fault or error.
There are some rare situations were a credit enquires may be faulty and therefore could be removed from a credit file, these situations include.
1) The credit provider did not have the necessary authorisation to conduct the enquire
2) In the case where a credit provider had conducted multiple enquires for the same person for the same facility, in this case enquires can be amalgamated into one listing.
3) In the case of identity theft were the credit provider has conducted an enquire on the wrong person.
4) If the information contained within a credit file regarding an enquire is not accurate or complete
As you will appreciate, when compared to the number of genuine applications being made by people each day the examples above represent a very small percentage. I feel it misleading for a credit repair company to advertise they can remove credit enquires when in fact they know they will only be successful with a very small percentage. In my opinion they are prying on people and in many cases taking money from them wrongly.
My personal feelings are some credit repair companies continue to tell people they can help them to have enquires removed from their credit file as they are more concerned with income than actually helping people.
Although it can be a very bitter pill to swallow the fact is there is little if anything that can be done to help people that have lowered their credit score due to making credit enquires. Time is the only cure, in same cases people will have to wait years before their credit score recovers sufficiently for them to once again be eligible to secure credit again.