What is Avantus on My Credit Report?

Wondering why Avantus LLC is on your credit report?

Finding an entry on your credit report that you don’t recognize can be scary, especially when the entry is accompanied by a decrease in your score.

If an entry from Avantus is on your report, it’s most likely because you applied for a mortgage recently.

Getting approved for a mortgage, loan, or credit requires a hard credit inquiry, which can lower your score.

While one entry won’t hurt your score too much, several hard inquiries can do some major damage.

Read on to learn more about Avantus LLC, how hard credit inquiries work, and how you may be able to get an entry removed from your report.

What Is Avantus LLC On My Credit Report?

Avantus LLC is a company that primarily provides specialized credit reports for mortgage lenders.

It lists several additional services, including:

• Soft credit checks
• Employment verification
• Two-factor authentication
• Tenant screening
• Social Security Number verification

That means Avantus could check your credit for multiple reasons; however, a mortgage application is the most likely cause.

Avantus specializes in offering merged credit reports to lenders, such as tri-merge reports.

This type of report combines data from your TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax reports to give lenders a comprehensive overview of your past credit use.

This report helps your prospective lender to make a decision on your application.

How Long Does a Hard Credit Inquiry Stay on Your Report?

If you don’t get it removed, a hard credit check will stay on your report for 2 years.

A hard inquiry can lower your score, though it becomes less impactful over time.

This sort of inquiry occurs when a lender, prospective employer, landlord, or other entity requests one or more of your credit reports.

Some lenders only request one of your credit reports, while others may use two or all three to make a decision. That means any or all of your scores could be affected.

Hard credit inquiries take place with your consent when you submit an application for funding.

Unlike a hard inquiry, a soft inquiry is a less extensive credit check that verifies your credit score.

Your report might undergo a soft inquiry when you:

• Check your score with a free credit monitoring service
• Get pre-approved for a loan or card
• Compare quotes

Though soft inquiries don’t affect your score, a hard inquiry may drop your score by a few points.

And if you have a handful of several applications in the last two years, hard inquiries can have a more severe impact on your score.

To minimize the negative effects of hard inquiries, try to do all of your mortgage shopping within a 14-day window.

During that timeframe, each individual application won’t result in a loss of points.

Another piece of advice: Often, mortgage lenders share their minimum requirements for credit, income, downpayment, etc.

Check into the approval odds before applying for a loan and only apply for ones you’re likely to get.

Learn More: Soft vs. Hard Inquiries

How to Remove an Avantus LLC Inquiry from Your Credit Report

If you applied for a mortgage recently, you don’t have to worry about an inquiry from Avantus.

But if you can’t think of anything that could have resulted in an inquiry from the company, you should get the hard inquiry deleted from your report.

It could be a sign of identity theft, or at the very least, a reporting error.

Either way, your score shouldn’t suffer.

Here are a couple of pointers to help you get Avantus off your report if it’s there by mistake.

Dispute the Inquiry

Reporting accidents happen. Unfortunately, so does identity fraud.

If a hard inquiry winds up on your credit report without your consent, you should reach out to the company named, and also to the credit bureaus.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1990 gives you 30 days to file a dispute for a hard inquiry.

You can file a dispute with the bureaus by phone, mail, and online.

While all three approaches can be effective, you may want to communicate with the bureaus via certified mail for documentation purposes.

To catch hard inquiries as soon as they’re added to your report, you should invest in a good credit monitoring service.

There are several excellent paid and free credit monitoring services that can alert you to new entries and any overall changes to your report.

Monitor Your Credit

Get Help from a Credit Repair Company

Hard inquiries can be hard to deal with sometimes, pun intended.

If you’re drowning in credit issues and don’t know where to begin improving your score, a credit repair company can be a real lifesaver.

They can dispute inaccuracies on your report, such as a fraudulent entry from Avantus LLC, contacting the company and the appropriate bureaus to ensure it gets deleted.

These companies are equipped to help with a slew of more challenging credit issues, too, such as:

• Bankruptcy
• Charge offs
• Debt collections
• Late payments
• Foreclosure
• Judgments
• Liens

Whether you’re reeling from identity theft, struggling with an unexpected financial hurdle, or simply overwhelmed with late payments, credit repair services can be well worth considering.

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Getting Avantus LLC Removed from Your Report

It can be disheartening to see your credit score drop when you’ve been making timely payments on all your accounts.

But as long as you applied for a mortgage, job, or even an apartment recently, you don’t need to stress over an entry from Avantus LLC.

The inquiry will have less of an effect on your score as time progresses, falling off your report in two years.

But if you didn’t submit an application that could have resulted in the inquiry, it’s time to get it removed.

Whether you dispute the entry yourself or work with one of the most highly-reviewed credit repair companies, don’t waste another day.