A credit reporting agency or credit repository has personal information pertaining to your paying history or pattern. The three largest credit bureaus in the United States are Equifax, Experian and Trans Union.

This normally happens when derogatory information is not removed from all three credit reporting agencies. For example, if a Judgment is removed from Trans Union and Experian and not from Equifax, a credit check will reveal that the Judgment is still on your credit report. Because it was never deleted it looks as if it came back on. It will not come back if it is removed legally. When it is removed based on the Equal Credit opportunity Act it cannot legally be put back on your report.

No, closing credit card accounts lowers your FICO score. Your credit score is calculated by longevity or the age of your average accounts. The longer you maintain a credit card account in good standing the higher the score.

An inquiry is a request for your credit history sometimes called a credit check. There are two types of inquiries, a hard inquiry and a soft inquiry. If you authorize this request it is called a hard inquiry and can decrease your credit score by 20 points. A soft inquiry is normally pulled for employment purposes, interim checks, promotions or marketing. These are inquiries that you did not authorize. A soft inquiry does not impact your score.

Any information can be changed, remember the information is owned by the creditors or merchants who put it there in the first place. They have the power to change or delete information reported at the credit reporting agencies. In fact the Fair Credit reporting Act both Federal and State require that it be changed or removed if it is not accurate or cannot be verified and is not a reflection of your credit worthiness. Derogatory information that is incorrectly reported, obsolete, erroneous, misleading and incomplete can be deleted.