How to Beat Avantus

Dena Standley | October 19, 2022

Legal Expert, Paralegal
Dena Standley, BA

Dena Standley is a seasoned paralegal with more than 20 years of experience in legal research and writing, having received a certification as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal from Southern Technical College.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

When you get Avantus removed from your credit report ^^

Summary: Is Avantus hurting your credit score? Here's SoloSuit's guide to everything you should know about Avantus and how to keep it off your credit report.

Avantus is a credit reporting agency that provides financial institutions with extensive background checks to potential clients who want a loan. It helps these companies assess borrowers' credibility and expose any history of fraud and criminal activities. Avantus recently rebranded and is now called Xactus. In this article, we will use the former name of the company, Avantus, for clarity purposes.

Manually verifying a potential borrower's information can be arduous, and Avantus provides cost-effective and, more often, reliable credit information. Its offers these services to mortgage companies, credit unions, banks, and other lending institutions. Avantus is well-known for its mortgage credit reporting but provides other services such as:

Tenant screening
Tax return verification
Two-factor authentication
Soft credit checks
Verification of employment
Social security number verification

Avantus is a legitimate credit reporting company that has been in business for over 75 years. It is not Better Business Bureau (BBB) accredited but has a B- rating. Consumer complaints against Avantus, from its BBB profile, include inaccurate credit reporting, performing a hard inquiry without the consumer's consent, and failing to remove an inquiry from the credit report.

Why is Avantus on my credit report?

Avantus usually appears on credit reports as an inquiry. Their work is to investigate your credit history and assess how you manage debt. Two main reasons Avantus appears on your credit report are:

Recent credit application
Identity theft

Now, let's break these down a little further.

Recent Credit Application

Avantus will appear on your credit report when a prospective lender requests them to run a credit check on you to determine whether to give you a loan or extend your credit. They appear on your credit report as a hard or soft inquiry.

A hard inquiry on your credit report means you applied for new credit such as a car loan, mortgage, and credit card. Hard inquiries reduce your credit scores by a significant margin and worsen the score if you have several inquiries in a short period.

A soft inquiry appears on your credit report when a creditor runs a credit history without your permission. Creditors do this when you have requested a preapproval quote before a loan application. An existing creditor may also do it to know your current credit situation. Soft inquiries by Avantus do not affect your credit score.

Beware of identity theft

You could be a victim of identity theft if you did not apply for a loan and Avantus is on your credit report. Take the following steps if you suspect someone stole your identity:

Contact the Federal Trade Commission( FTC) and report the identity theft
Contact Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion and request a fraud alert placed on your credit report.
Contact Avantus or the company that hired them to get the credit application details. Use the contact information below.

Physical Address: 70 Jefferson Blvd, 4th Floor, Warwick, RI 02888
Phone number: (800) 243-0120
Website: Avantus

Monitor your credit reports once you suspect identity theft and follow up to ensure minimal damage occurs. You are legally entitled to get a free credit report yearly from the three main credit bureaus.

Avantus makes common credit report errors

When performing a credit history, Avantus gathers information from various sources. During this process, errors occur, and you can receive an inaccurate negative report. Common Avantus credit report errors include:

Giving you a bad credit report belonging to someone else. Avantus could have mixed up the files as they gathered the information, or the credit bureaus gave them another person's information.
Including outdated information on a previous unpaid debt that you later cleared. Avantus may also report on a wrongful debt entry that you addressed by sending a Debt Validation Letter to the creditors, and the debt collector could not prove you owe the debt.
Listing you as a suspected money launderer, terrorist, or drug trafficker. Sometimes, mistaken identity occurs if your first or last name is similar to a known suspect.

Any erroneous information can result in being denied a loan that you could have otherwise qualified for, being subjected to higher mortgage payments, or facing fraud charges. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) prevents credit reporting companies from including false information on your credit report. Alert Avantus on any errors they have included. They are legally required to correct the errors within 30 days; if not, you can take legal action.

Remove Avantus from your credit report

Hard inquiries on your credit report lower your credit score and prevent you from getting a new job, leading to higher insurance premiums or being rejected from renting out certain properties. You can remove Avantus from your credit report by disputing the inquiry or working with a credit repair company.

Dispute the inquiry

Send a credit inquiry dispute letter to the three credit bureaus and request them to remove the inquiry from your report if you did not apply for a loan. The credit bureaus should investigate with Avantus and prove that you authorized the credit inquiry. Under FCRA, Avantus has 30 days to report to the credit bureaus with proof of your authorization. If not, they should remove the hard inquiry from your credit report.

A legitimate hard inquiry stays on your report for two years but only affects your credit score during the first year. After two years, if the inquiry still appears on your credit report, send a credit inquiry removal letter to Avantus and the credit bureaus for removal.

Work with a credit repair company

Some consumers prefer to work with a credit repair company to save the time and hassle it takes to remove the hard inquiries from their reports. These credit repair companies prepare the documents you need to send and communicate with Avantus and the credit bureaus on your behalf.

Credit repair companies cannot remove valid inquiries or improve your credit score overnight. It will probably take the same time they took to see changes on your credit report if you had done the work yourself.

How SoloSuit can help you

Solosuit can help you with the documents you need to send to creditors if you want to improve your credit score by clearing a debt listed on your credit report. For example, SoloSuit's Debt Validation Letter requires the creditors to validate the debt that Avantus highlighted as a concern on your credit report. If they fail to do so, they are required by law to remove it from your credit report.

What is SoloSuit?

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You can use SoloSuit to respond to a debt lawsuit, to send letters to collectors, and even to settle a debt.

SoloSuit's Answer service is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your Answer. Upon completion, we'll have an attorney review your document and we'll file it for you.

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