Clarity Services on your credit report: what this inquiry means

Who Clarity Services is

Clarity Services, Inc. is the Experian business that collects and sells information on payday loans, installment loans, auto loans and leases, and similar products, with a focus on lower-income and subprime borrowers. Lenders use its Clarity Report and Clarity Credit Score to judge applicants with thin files or no bureau file at all.

Is it a hard or soft inquiry?

A Clarity lookup lives in Clarity's own file. It is not one of the hard inquiries FICO or VantageScore count, since those scores are calculated from the three bureau reports. If you also see Clarity's name on a bureau report, that entry carries whatever hard or soft label the request was given.

Why it showed up on your report

An online lender, a payday or installment lender, or an auto finance or lease company checked your application against Clarity's data.

How to check that you authorized it

1. Order your free Clarity report and read the inquiry list.
2. Search your email for loan offers or applications on the same dates.
3. For a lender you never contacted, ask it in writing what permissible purpose it had.

How to reach Clarity Services

Call 866-390-3118 and choose option 4 for a report (option 1 for a security freeze), or use the self-service portal on Clarity's site. Clarity gives one free report every 12 months and a credit score on request.

Guides that go deeper

• Specialty consumer reports: ChexSystems, tenant screening and moreBanks, landlords, insurers, and utilities often check reports you've never seen. Who keeps them, how to get yours free, and how to fix errors in them.
• Prequalifying for a personal loan: what the soft pull shows and hidesPrequalifying for a personal loan uses a soft pull that doesn't touch your FICO Score. What the offer shows, what can change, and when the hard pull lands.
• Removing hard inquiries you didn't authorize, the legitimate wayAn inquiry you never authorized can be disputed, and one from fraud can be blocked. One you did authorize can't. How to sort them and fix each kind.
• Hard vs. soft inquiries: which credit checks count against youA hard inquiry comes from a credit application and can trim your score. A soft one never does. A table of the common checks, gray zones included.