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your options. Remember, you can save yourself tens of 
thousands of dollars by investing a little now to perfect 
your credit before you go into a new home. If you would like 
help, just telephone the Toll-Free Credit questions number: 
1-800-653-9529.  
Chapter Four: Erasing Credit Inquiries 
Every time you apply for credit, and the credit grantor 
checks your credit report, a credit inquiry is placed on 
your file. Even if you receive a credit offer in the mail 
and you respond, your credit will almost certainly be 
checked and a credit inquiry will be added to your credit 
report. Credit inquiries are bad because too many of them 
can indicate to a creditor that you're "credit hungry" and 
may be in financial trouble.  
Worse yet, the creditor has reason to believe that you 
received many of the credit lines that are showing as 
inquiries, and that many of those credit lines have not yet 
appeared on your credit report. Too many recent inquiries 
indicate to a potential credit grantor that your debt to 
income ratio may be much higher than you say. Most creditors 
disregard inquiries once they have been on your credit 
report for six months or more. This may not help your 
situation if you need credit right away or if applying to a 
creditor who looks at all of your inquiries. All credit 
inquiries should come off your credit report after two 
years.  
If you're not willing to wait, you may take these steps: 
Step One. First, you must find out which credit inquiries 
are getting in your way. Order all three of your credit 
reports following the instructions in the Order Your Credit 
Reports file on this web site. When your reports arrive, 
look toward the end of your credit report to find the 
inquiries. Some of the inquiries are only promotional and 
will not be shown to prospective credit grantors. You need 
not worry about those. Identify only the inquiries that are 
shown to credit grantors. You should recognize some of these 
as places where you applied for credit, but others may be a 
complete mystery to you.  
Step Two. You must then find the addresses for each credit 
inquirer. Your TRW credit report will list addresses for 
each of the inquirers. Your Trans Union and Equifax reports 
will show no addresses for credit inquirers. Match your TRW 
with your Trans Union and Equifax reports; you should be 
able to use the same addresses on the inquirers that are 
listed on TRW and on one of the other credit reports. If 
some of the addresses don't show up on TRW but do show up on 
either Trans Union or Equifax, you will have to call the 
corresponding credit bureau to find the address. It is 
almost impossible to get a live body on the telephone at 
Trans Union, but Equifax has an 800 number listed at the top 
of their reports. If you have a inquirer on your Trans Union 
and you can't reach Trans Union by phone, then you might try 
calling the 800 directory (1-800-555-1212) and request the 
800 number for the inquiring creditor. Once you have 
collected all of the addresses for each inquiring creditor 
on each credit report, you are ready for step two.  
Step Three. Now you must prepare letters to each inquiring 
creditor asking them to remove their inquiry. The Fair 
Credit Reporting Act allows only authorized inquiries to 
appear on the consumer credit report. You must challenge 
whether the inquiring creditor had proper authorization 
before pulling your credit file. You may write the inquiring 
creditors a letter such as this:  

Re: Unauthorized Credit Inquiry 
Dear American Express, 
Recently, I received a copy of my TRW credit report. 
The credit report showed a credit inquiry by your company 
that I do not recall authorizing. I understand that you 
shouldn't be allowed to put an inquiry on my file unless I 
have authorized it.  
Please have this inquiry removed from my credit file because 
it is making it very difficult for me to acquire credit. I 
have sent this letter certified mail because I need your 
prompt response to this issue.  
Please be so kind as to forward me documentation that you 
have had the inquiry removed. If you find that I am remiss, 
and you did have my authorization to inquire into my credit 
report, then please send me proof likewise.  
Thanking you in advance, 
Jane Caveat-Debtor 

Step Four. Some of your creditors may provide documentation 
that a credit inquiry was authorized by you. Read the 
authorization that you signed very carefully. If there is 
any ambiguity, you can write back and argue that the 
inquirer's authorization form was too complicated and not 
easily understood by the layman. You can threaten to contact 
the state banking commission and complain about a deceptive 
and unclear authorization form if they don't remove your 
inquiry. Some creditors will try to ignore your challenge. 
Be sure to send each letter Certified Mail Return Receipt 
Requested and keep close track of the time that you sent the 
letter. If the inquiring creditor doesn't respond within 
about thirty days, you will have ample grounds to call the 
inquiring creditor and demand some action.  
At that point, it's almost irrelevant whether or not you 
authorized the inquiry. Then it becomes about the creditor's 
lack of response to a consumer dispute. Be sure to hold your 
ground and demand that the inquiry be immediately removed or 
you will complain to the state banking commission or similar 
authorities. Many of your inquiring creditors may simply 
agree to delete the inquiry as a courtesy or because they 
cannot or will not verify your authorization. That is the 
goal. Remember, it is not likely that you will need all of 
your credit inquiries removed - just enough to keep you from 
being denied credit.  
Chapter Five: Settling Unpaid Debts 
Many times we have been asked, "Can I just delete the 
negative listing without paying the debt?" In most cases, 
the question comes from someone attempting to dishonestly 
escape a legal obligation. While it is true that negative 
debt listings can be deleted from the credit report - even 
while the debt remains unpaid - it is also true that these 
listings stand a good chance of reappearing on the credit 
file sooner or later. There is a better alternative than 
attempting to escape the debt. You can create a true win-win