Summary: Is THD/CBNA showing up on your credit report? Here is SoloSuit's guide on THD/CBNA and how to prevent them from affecting your credit.

THD/CBNA is one of the codes that appear on your credit report when you apply for a Home Depot credit card issued by Citibank. The acronym stands for The Home Depot/Citibank North America and may also appear as CBNA/THD. Here's all you need to know about this code.

How THD/CBNA appears on your credit report

The Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the US, selling a wide range of home improvement products from home appliances to construction materials. In addition, the company works together with Citibank North America to issue consumer credit cards to their customers. These credit cards include:

The Home Depot Commercial Revolving Charge Card
The Home Depot Consumer Credit Card
The Home Depot Commercial Account

If you've recently applied for any of these three cards and authorized Citibank to access your credit history, you may find a hard credit inquiry entry in your credit report. Alternatively, this code may appear on your credit report if you've been listed as an authorized user by a primary cardholder..

What is a hard credit inquiry?

A hard credit inquiry occurs when a lender checks your credit history following your application for financing or other credit applications. They assess your past borrowing behavior, including how well you repay your debts on time and any negative remarks from previous debts.

Lenders often use your credit history to determine whether you are creditworthy. A bad credit history reduces your chances of being approved for loans or may attract higher interest rates for any missed payments.

What is a soft inquiry?

A soft inquiry is when you authorize someone to check your credit report. For example, if you request a prequalification for one of The Home Depot credit cards, the company may access your credit history. As a result, the entry may appear on your credit report but will not have any impact on your credit score.

How long does the THD/CBNA inquiry stay on my credit report?

The THD/CBNA inquiry remains in your credit report for two years from the inquiry date. Although it negatively impacts your credit score, a single entry may not decrease your score by more than five points. Additionally, it may have a lower impact if you have a good credit history and no derogatory remarks in your credit report.

Can you remove a THD/CBNA hard inquiry from your credit reports?

Unfortunately, you can't remove a THD/CBNA hard inquiry from your credit reports if you applied for one of The Home Depot's credit cards. The entry will stay on your credit report until after two years. However, you should have no reason to worry about it because it won't affect your credit score for a long time.

The real problem occurs when THD/CBNA appears in your report without your knowledge, and you're not an authorized user of any Home Deport credit card issued by Citibank. If that happens, you should be concerned because you could be a victim of identity theft or an erroneous entry. Either way, you need to act fast to solve this issue before it ruins your financial record.

Here's how to resolve this issue.

Contact Citibank

If you find an unauthorized THD/CBNA inquiry in your credit report, Citibank should provide you with the information you need to identify the individual or entity that authorized the inquiry. At this point, you can compare details such as your name, Social Security Number, and address with the information you obtain from the bank. If there's an error in the report, contact Citibank right away and let them know they got the wrong details. Citibank must then write to all three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — to request the removal of the entry from your credit report.

However, if the information you obtain verifies that you authorized the inquiry but have no idea how that happened, you need to report a possible case of identity theft.

Report suspected fraud

Visit the Federal Trade Commission official website to report and document the suspected identity theft. It's also a good idea to file a report with your local police department, especially if you recently lost anything through robbery, burglary, or any form of crime.

Freeze your credit account

The next step is to request the three credit bureaus to freeze your credit account to stop any further fraud attempts in your account. Freezing your accounts restricts access to your credit reports and prevents any new unauthorized accounts from being opened.

Request free fraud alert

Credit bureaus can also alert you in case of a suspected fraud attempt. The free fraud alert lasts for one year and is renewable after expiry.

Dispute the inquiry

Lastly, you can dispute the unauthorized inquiry with the three credit bureaus. Doing so mandates the credit bureaus to investigate all the inaccuracies before recording the entry in your credit report again.

An authorized user

If you are an authorized user of any of the three credit cards issued by The Home Depot, this may be another reason that a THD/CBNA inquiry appears in your credit report. Besides having access to the credit card, being an authorized user can positively impact your credit since the account actively appears on your report. Additionally, you aren't responsible for paying the debt.

However, if the cardholder has a high utilization ratio or skips payments, your credit may suffer the consequences. If this is something you don't want to deal with, you can contact Citibank to remove you as an authorized user of the account.

Once you are no longer listed as an authorized user, the credit bureaus can remove the account from your credit report and reverse its effects on your credit score.

The bottom line

Having a THD/CBNA inquiry in your credit report isn't a bad thing. However, you should ensure that all the information about the credit inquiry is accurate and that you're not a victim of fraud. In addition, if you have no idea about the credit inquiry and you're not an authorized user, you should report the incident to avoid financial problems in the future.

What if I'm being sued for a Home Depot credit card debt?

If Home Depot Consumer Credit Card or Citibank have contacted you about a debt you owe, the worst thing to do is ignore them. If either organization is suing you, the first step you should take to win the case is to file an Answer with the court.

When Citibank sues you for a Home Depot credit card debt, you may feel tempted to ignore the lawsuit. In fact, most consumers ignore such cases, which is why almost 90% of debt lawsuits are automatically lost because people simply don't know how to respond. Failure to respond usually results in default judgment being entered against you which can cause major financial problems like wage garnishment.

SoloSuit can help you respond to a debt lawsuit in minutes, increase your chances of winning with an attorney's review, and file the Answer for you.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to respond to a debt collection lawsuit.

How it works: SoloSuit is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your answer. Upon completion, you can either print the completed forms and mail in the hard copies to the courts or you can pay SoloSuit to file it for you and to have an attorney review the document.

Respond with SoloSuit

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