Unauthorized Credit Pulls

[Hello_It's_Me!]

My apologies to the forum for so many questions, I'm at the very beginning of my credit clean up, and I'm having trouble getting focused on where to start. I think I'll take it one CRA at a time.

I have my credit report in hand. There are three unauthorized HARD credit pulls on my report.

One is from Direct TV, have NO idea whatsoever why that is there. Then there is one from a collection agency and one from a company that does skip traces.

Two of them might be from OC's, but the Direct TV is definitely not anything I ever authorized.

Is it important to dispute these, or just wait till they drop off. Is it a long and tedious process to dispute hard pulls? How much do hard pulls bring down your scores?

Thank you,
Jillian

[BassBoy]

Dispute them immediately! The CRA will investigate and if the credit pulls were without your authorization or not yours, they will be removed. Credit pulls stay on your report for two years, why keep them on there if they are not yours?

The time frame for disputes to correction is usually 30 days on average.....give or take a few.

Hard pulls shouldn't lower your scores too much, unless you're going everywhere to apply for credit. For example, if you need a car, you go to a few dealerships and they pull your credit. Well, you have 30 days to shop and I believe that acts as one credit pull.

[newstart]

I would definitely dispute them immediately. There was a news story here in michigan that a man had 17 inquiries on his credit report (unauthorized) and went to investigate it with the credit bureaus and found that there was a theft identity ring running here is Michigan. The cops busted them and found all kinds of personal info on several different people. Yes, please investigate because identity theft is the new past time in the USA.