Too Many Credit Enquiries in Australia? Here's What to Do

Quick Answer: In Australia, one to two hard credit enquiries per year is considered normal. Five or more enquiries in 12 months is a significant red flag for lenders and actively reduces your credit score. Each hard enquiry stays on your file for 5 years. Enquiries made without your proper consent can be removed under the Privacy Act 1988 and Credit Reporting Code — ACS achieves a 98% success rate on accepted removal cases with most resolutions in 14–30 days.

Credit enquiries are one of the least-understood parts of the Australian credit system — and one of the most damaging when they cluster. What starts as a reasonable attempt to find a loan can quickly spiral into a file that looks like financial desperation, with rejections generating more applications generating more enquiries in a downward spiral.

If you have too many enquiries on your file, this guide tells you exactly what the damage looks like, when enquiries can be removed, and how to stop the cycle.

Hard Enquiries vs Soft Enquiries

Not every check of your credit file creates a mark. Understanding the difference matters.

Hard enquiries are created every time you formally apply for credit — a home loan, car loan, personal loan, credit card, or phone plan on a contract. The lender pulls your credit report, and that pull is recorded. The enquiry stays for 5 years regardless of whether the application was approved or declined.

Soft enquiries — including checking your own score and pre-qualification checks on comparison websites — do not appear on your file and do not affect your score at all.

How Much Damage Do Too Many Enquiries Do?

Each individual hard enquiry reduces your score by roughly 5–30 points. That sounds modest. The problem is that enquiries cluster — people apply for credit multiple times in quick succession after each rejection, and the score drops a little with each one.

Beyond the score impact, lenders perform their own manual assessment of enquiry patterns. A file showing seven enquiries in eight months with no approvals tells a lender that multiple other lenders have already assessed and declined this applicant — adding a layer of negative inference on top of the score itself.

When Can Enquiries Be Removed?

Under the Privacy Act 1988 and Credit Reporting Code, an enquiry can only be made with your proper consent for a specific credit application. When this rule is breached, the enquiry can be challenged and removed.

The most common grounds for enquiry removal are:

1. No consent given — the lender ran a hard enquiry without you authorising a formal application
2. Broker ran multiple checks — a broker accessed your file multiple times for different lenders without your consent for each individual enquiry
3. Comparison website pre-qualification converted to hard enquiry without clear disclosure — you used a soft eligibility tool but a hard enquiry was created
4. Identity fraud — someone applied for credit in your name
5. Error — the wrong person's file was accessed

If any of these apply, credit enquiry removal through a formal challenge under the Privacy Act 1988 can clear those entries from your file. Legitimate enquiries — where you knowingly applied — cannot be removed early. They remain for 5 years.

Real Case Study: Priscilla, Perth — 4 Unauthorised Enquiries Removed in 22 Days

Priscilla, 32, a pharmacist from Perth, had used a popular loan comparison website to explore personal loan options. She'd completed one form — entering her details for a pre-qualification check — expecting a soft search. Instead, the website had submitted her details to four separate lenders without her explicit consent for each individual hard enquiry. Four hard enquiries appeared on her Equifax file within 48 hours.

Her score dropped from 681 to 583. She hadn't applied for anything — she'd clicked "see my options."

Her ACS assessment confirmed that none of the four enquiries had been authorised individually. The comparison site's terms were ambiguous at best — they did not make clear that submitting the form would trigger multiple hard enquiries with multiple lenders. This was insufficient consent under the Credit Reporting Code.

We challenged all four enquiries simultaneously. Three lenders acknowledged the breach within 14 days. The fourth took longer but was resolved through AFCA escalation.

Result: All four enquiries were removed. Priscilla's Equifax score recovered from 583 to 677 within 22 days of the first removal — a 94-point improvement just from enquiry removal. She then applied for the personal loan she'd originally wanted and was approved at 11.2% p.a. — saving approximately $8,400 in interest over 3 years compared to the specialist rate she'd been quoted at 23.9% p.a. Subject to individual assessment; results may vary.

What to Do If You Have Too Many Enquiries

1. Stop all new credit applications immediately — every new application adds another enquiry
2. Pull your full credit report from Equifax, Experian, and Illion and list every enquiry with the creditor name and date
3. Identify any you didn't authorise — mark enquiries you don't recall explicitly consenting to
4. Challenge unauthorised enquiries — contact the lender directly in writing, citing the Privacy Act 1988 and your lack of consent
5. Get a professional assessment if multiple unauthorised enquiries are present or the lender disputes the challenge
6. Wait for legitimate enquiries to age — the score impact of older enquiries diminishes over time; a 4-year-old enquiry has far less weight than a 3-month-old one
7. Use soft eligibility checkers going forward — most major lenders and comparison sites now offer pre-qualification tools that use soft enquiries before you formally apply

Frequently Asked Questions

How many credit enquiries is too many in Australia? One to two hard enquiries per year is normal and has minimal impact. Three to four starts attracting lender attention. Five or more in 12 months is a significant negative signal — both for your score and for lenders assessing your file manually. Seven or more in 12 months puts many mainstream lenders into automatic decline territory regardless of your actual score.

How long do credit enquiries stay on your file in Australia? Hard credit enquiries stay on your Australian credit file for exactly 5 years from the date they were made. They cannot be removed early unless they were made without your proper consent. The score impact of any individual enquiry diminishes as it ages — a 4-year-old enquiry contributes far less to lender concern than a recent one.

Can credit enquiries be removed from my credit file in Australia? Yes — but only enquiries that were made without your proper consent under the Privacy Act 1988 and Credit Reporting Code. Legitimate enquiries from credit applications you genuinely submitted cannot be removed early. Common removal grounds include: no consent given, broker ran multiple checks without individual consent, or comparison website created hard enquiries from a soft pre-qualification form.

Does checking my own credit score show up as an enquiry? No. Checking your own credit score or full credit report is a soft enquiry and is completely invisible to lenders. It does not appear on the version of your file that lenders see and has no impact whatsoever on your credit score. You can check your own file as often as you want at no cost.

Can I get a loan if I have too many enquiries in Australia? Some lenders will decline automatically if they see a cluster of recent enquiries — regardless of the underlying score. Others use the enquiry pattern as an additional risk signal in their manual assessment. If you have a cluster of recent enquiries and are having difficulty getting approved, address the enquiry issue first rather than adding more applications to the file.

How much does each credit enquiry reduce your score? Each individual hard enquiry typically reduces an Equifax score by 5–30 points. The exact impact varies based on the rest of your file — a single enquiry on a clean file with a score of 800 may have minimal visible impact, while the same enquiry on a file already sitting at 450 with other negative entries compounds more significantly.

Too Many Enquiries on Your File? Let Us Review It.

A free assessment from Australian Credit Solutions reviews your full credit file, identifies any enquiries that may have been made without proper consent, and tells you clearly what can be challenged and removed.

Australian Credit Solutions is ASIC-licensed (ACL 532003), lawyer-led by Principal Solicitor Elisa Rothschild, and has helped over 5,000 Australians clean up their credit files since 2014. No Win No Fee. 98% success rate on accepted cases.

Get My Free Assessment → 📞 0489 265 737 🛡️ ASIC Licensed ACL 532003 | ⭐ 4.9/5 from 976+ Reviews | 🏆 Award Winner 2022–2024

Australian Credit Solutions Pty Ltd holds Australian Credit Licence ACL 532003. Credit repair services are subject to individual assessment. Results may vary. This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal or financial advice.

Related reading: Credit Enquiry Removal → | Improve Your Credit Score → | Default Removal Services →