Most creditors look at an applicant's credit report before making a decision to lend money. Inquiries into a credit report can prove harmful, especially more than one in a short period of time, because it looks like the person is looking for credit to make up for income shortfalls, and thus less likely to pay back debt. Credit reporting agencies can only see the number of inquiries, not the reason for them

Identification

Consumers may request that credit reporting agencies remove inquiries on a credit report under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), but only unauthorized inquiries (one the individual does not sign for) will be removed.

Considerations

Inquiries from promotional offers, such as pre-approved cards and personal inquiries, are not shown to creditors so getting the reporting agency to remove this from a credit record may not offer any benefits.

Benefits

Inquiries for several different types of credit usually lower a person's credit score. Removing erroneous or unauthorized inquiries will raise the FICO score (Fair Isaac Corporation score, used by nearly every lender) and increase access to credit.

How To Remove Inquiry

In order to remove an inquiry, the consumer should write a letter to each creditor who appears on their report and ask them to remove the inquiry. Quite often, creditors will remove an inquiry out of courtesy or because it means too much of a burden to prove authorization.

Tips

Credit reporting agencies (CRA) must investigate any contested claim on a credit report. If the CRA refuses to investigate an inquiry dispute, the FCRA allows the consumer to collect $1,000 in small claims court

Source:

CreditInfoCenter.com; How to Erase Credit Inquiries

PrivacyRights.org; How Private Is My Credit Report?