Informative Research on your credit report: what this inquiry means

Who Informative Research is

Informative Research is a credit reporting agency that works with banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders. It's a reseller: it doesn't hold a credit database and instead orders your information from one or more of the three bureaus each time it prepares a report. Seeing its name means a lender you applied with used Informative Research to get your file.

Is it a hard or soft inquiry?

An order for a loan application is a hard inquiry on each bureau report it touched. If your lender told you the first look would be a soft prequalification, the entry should be soft and visible only on your own copy of the report.

Why it showed up on your report

A mortgage application or a loan application at a bank or credit union that uses Informative Research. The company's borrower page puts it plainly: a lender you applied with likely used its service to request your report.

Why it can show more than once

Informative Research can order from one, two or all three bureaus, so a single application may show once or three times across your reports, one per bureau.

How to check that you authorized it

1. Match the inquiry date to a bank, credit union or mortgage application.
2. Check any denial letter. If it names Informative Research as the source, that letter also opens your right to a free copy.
3. Call 800-473-4633 with your identity details and ask which lender ordered the report.

How to reach Informative Research

Mail a signed request to the Garden Grove address with your full name, address, a copy of your driver's license, Social Security number, date of birth, phone, a utility bill and the report number if you know it. Informative Research releases a copy free if you were denied credit in the last 60 days with a letter naming it, are unemployed and job hunting, receive public assistance, or believe your file has errors from fraud. Disputes also go to [email protected] or 800-473-4633 (8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pacific).

Guides that go deeper

• How mortgage preapproval shows up on your creditA mortgage preapproval usually means a hard pull from all three bureaus. Why one lender shows up three times, how shopping is scored, and what to avoid.
• How to read and use an adverse action noticeA denial letter must name the bureau, shows the score used if there was one, and opens a 60-day window for a free report. How to read and use each part.
• 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.