Innovis on your credit report: what this inquiry means

Who Innovis is

Innovis keeps a full credit file, with your name, addresses, Social Security number, date of birth, phone number and account history, much like the three big bureaus, and sells credit and identity verification data. It isn't part of AnnualCreditReport.com, so most people have never seen their Innovis file. The CFPB lists CBC Companies as its owner.

Is it a hard or soft inquiry?

Innovis lists the companies that reviewed your file in its own report. Those reviews don't feed the FICO or VantageScore numbers lenders pull from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. A lender that checks Innovis during an application may log a separate hard inquiry at a bureau.

Why it showed up on your report

A lender or card issuer checked Innovis to verify your identity or review your credit, or a company used Innovis data to build a prescreened offer list. Innovis's report request page also offers an opt-out from prescreened offers of credit or insurance.

How to check that you authorized it

1. Order your free Innovis report and read the list of companies that reviewed it.
2. Match each one to an application or account you have.
3. If a review lines up with nothing and you see new accounts elsewhere, place an Innovis freeze along with the three bureau freezes.

How to reach Innovis

Innovis offers free copies of its credit report through an online request form, by phone at 866-712-0021, or with a mail-in form. You'll need to supply personal information to verify your identity. The CFPB also lists 800-540-2505 for Innovis.

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.
• Freezing all the bureaus, including the ones nobody mentionsEquifax, Experian, and TransUnion are three of the freezes you need. The other four, with each company's own freeze link, phone and mail address.
• How to stop prescreened credit offersPre-approved mail comes from lists the bureaus build from your file, and it never hurts your score. What the offer promises and how to opt out for good.
• 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.