COAF is what’s known as a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries occur when a lender pulls your credit report when applying for a loan.
Generally you can remove inquiries from your report if any of the following has happened:
COAF reviewed a copy of your credit report(s) to decide whether or not to lend to you, which appears on your report as a hard inquiry.
Lenders are required to report hard inquiries everytime they pull your credit reports because you asked for credit. They use this reporting to track how often you’re applying for credit cards, loans, etc., which in their eyes makes you a higher risk.
If you don’t recognize this company, consider what else you may have applied for around the date of the inquiry, as many times businesses will use 3rd parties to pull credit reports which regularly causes confusion.
Hard inquiries, or hard pulls, occur every time you apply for credit and a lender needs to pull your credit reports to make an informed decision whether or not to approve you.
The most common reason for these are when applying for:
If you notice an unfamiliar or unauthorized hard inquiry from COAF on your credit report, don't worry; it's possible to get rid of it. The initial step is to dispute the inquiry by sending a letter or filing a dispute online with the credit bureaus. Ensure that you provide all pertinent information and documentation to back up your claim.
If the credit bureaus determine that the inquiry was indeed unauthorized, they will remove it from your report. It's essential to keep monitoring your credit report regularly and ensure that there are no further unauthorized inquiries or errors. By taking swift action to correct any inaccuracies on your credit report, you can safeguard your credit score and financial well-being in the long run.
Accumulating excessive hard inquiries on your credit report can adversely affect your credit score. To mitigate this impact, it's advisable to avoid applying for credit unless necessary. Only apply when required and conduct prior research to determine which lenders are more likely to grant approval.
You may want to space out your applications over time to prevent multiple inquiries from appearing at once. Lastly, keep a close watch on your credit report to ensure that all inquiries are authorized and accurate.
By adopting these measures, you can safeguard your credit score and maintain good financial health in the long run.
Hard inquiries (like COAF) will remain on your credit report for a maximum of 2 years, regardless of whether or not your credit with Capital One Auto Finance was approved. Depending on the scoring model used, hard inquiries will stop affecting your score between 3 to 12 months.
If you’ve ever received a pre-qualification offer for a credit card, auto loan, mortgage, or anything else of that nature, a soft inquiry, or soft pull, was used. Unlike hard inquiries, soft inquiries have nothing to do with you requesting new credit, and as such they’re not visible to anyone except you and do not lower your score.
If the inquiry is a result of identity theft, then yes, TBOM/CONTIN can be removed from your credit report, this is something we can help with.
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