How long do hard inquiries stay on your credit report?

Hard inquiries stay on your credit report for 2 years from the date of the pull, but they only affect your FICO score for the first 12 months. After 12 months, an inquiry is still visible on your report but no longer reduces your score.

The two timelines: report visibility vs. score impact

Hard inquiries have two distinct timelines that are commonly confused:

Score impact: 12 months. FICO only factors a hard inquiry into your score for the first 12 months. An inquiry made 13+ months ago no longer lowers your score.
Report visibility: 2 years. The hard inquiry remains visible on your credit report — to any lender who pulls it — for the full 24 months from the date of the pull. Lenders can see it, but FICO doesn't score it after month 12.

Month-by-month timeline

Months 1–12: Inquiry is on your report AND affecting your FICO score (typically -2 to -5 points).
Months 13–24: Inquiry is still on your report and visible to lenders, but FICO no longer penalizes your score for it.
Month 25+: Inquiry falls off your credit report completely — no longer visible to lenders or scored.

Can hard inquiries be removed before 2 years?

Hard inquiries can only be removed early if they were unauthorized — meaning you did not apply for credit and the lender had no permissible purpose. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you can dispute an unauthorized hard inquiry with the credit bureau. The bureau must investigate and remove the inquiry if the lender cannot verify a permissible purpose. Legitimate hard inquiries from applications you authorized cannot be removed early, even if the application was denied.

Rate shopping exception: multiple inquiries in 45 days

For mortgages, auto loans, and student loans, FICO's scoring model treats multiple inquiries within a 45-day window as a single inquiry. This means rate-shopping across lenders for the same loan type won't compound your score damage — the first inquiry costs 2–5 points, and the rest within the window add nothing. For credit cards and personal loans, each application is a separate inquiry with no deduplication window.

Worked example — inquiry timeline

You apply for an auto loan in January 2026. The lender pulls your credit — one hard inquiry appears on your report. Impact: roughly -3 FICO points through January 2027 (12 months). From February 2027 through January 2028, the inquiry still shows on your report but your score is unaffected by it. In February 2028 (25 months later), it drops off completely.

Improving your credit score is the fastest way to offset inquiry impact. See How to Improve Your Credit Score — adding positive history (on-time payments, lower utilization) outweighs inquiry drag faster than waiting it out.

Sources

The CFPB confirms that hard inquiries remain on credit reports for 2 years and that lenders can see all hard inquiries during that period when they pull a consumer's credit file. — CFPB — How Long Does Information Stay on My Credit Report?
myFICO states that hard inquiries only factor into FICO scores for 12 months from the date of inquiry, even though they remain on the credit report for 2 years. — myFICO — How Are Inquiries Factored Into FICO Scores?
Under the FCRA, consumers have the right to dispute inaccurate or unauthorized hard inquiries with credit bureaus, which must investigate within 30 days and remove inquiries they cannot verify. — FTC — FCRA Consumer Rights
FICO's rate-shopping deduplication window allows consumers to apply with multiple mortgage, auto, or student loan lenders within 45 days and have those inquiries treated as one — the same window defined in both FICO 8 and FICO 9 scoring models. — myFICO — Multiple Inquiries in a Short Period

Key takeaways

Hard inquiries stay on your credit report for 2 years from the pull date.
They only affect your FICO score for the first 12 months — after that, visible but not scored.
Multiple mortgage/auto/student loan inquiries within 45 days = one inquiry in FICO's model.
Unauthorized hard inquiries can be disputed and removed under the FCRA.
Building positive credit history (payments, lower utilization) offsets inquiry drag faster than waiting.
Related: What Is a Hard Inquiry? | Hard Inquiry vs. Soft Inquiry | How to Dispute Credit Report Errors