There's a credit enquiry on your file you don't recognise. Now what?

You pulled your credit report before applying for a business loan, which was the smart move. Then you spotted it: an enquiry from a finance company you’ve never heard of, dated three weeks ago, for an amount you never asked about. Is someone borrowing in your name? Has a lender been snooping? And will it count against you when you apply for real?

Take a breath. Most mystery enquiries have a boring explanation, and the ones that don’t can be dealt with quickly if you move in the right order. This guide walks you through working out who made it, getting it removed if it shouldn’t be there, and making sure it doesn’t happen again while you’re shopping for finance.

Why does an unknown enquiry matter when you’re about to borrow?

An enquiry is a record that a credit provider looked at your file, usually because someone applied for credit. Lenders reading your report see those records, and a cluster of recent ones can look like you’ve been applying all over town and getting turned down. Scoring models also take enquiries into account, so an entry you didn’t cause can nudge your score in the wrong direction at exactly the wrong moment.

There’s a second reason to care. Government guidance on checking your own credit report puts it plainly: credit checks should only appear if you gave permission. So an enquiry you genuinely didn’t authorise is either a mistake or a warning sign, and both are worth fixing before a lender asks you about it.

What are the usual explanations?

Before you assume the worst, run down this list. In our experience, the first three explain the large majority of surprise entries.

What you see	What it usually is	How to check
A finance company name you don’t know	The finance arm behind a store, dealer or equipment supplier you did deal with	Think back to anything bought on terms, rented or financed recently
A lender you never approached	A broker or comparison site passed your application on	Look for an online form you filled in around that date
Several lenders on the same day	A broker submitting your file to multiple lenders at once	Ask the broker for a list of who they sent it to
A business with a slightly different name	A trading name, a parent company or a recent rebrand	Search the name on the Companies Office register
A utility, phone or buy-now-pay-later provider	A new account or plan you set up and forgot	Check your emails and statements for that date
An enquiry with no link to anything you did	Possible identity misuse	Treat as fraud until proved otherwise (see below)

That third row deserves a closer look, because it’s the one shoppers walk into without realising. When you fill in a quick “get matched” form, the authority you tick may allow the business to share your details with a panel of lenders. Each of those lenders may then run its own check. You thought you made one enquiry; your credit file records several. Our page on how brokers work explains the different models, and the difference between a broker who picks one lender and one who submits widely shows up right here, on your file.

How do you find out who made the enquiry?

Work through these steps in order. Each one narrows things down.

1. Get all three reports. New Zealand has three credit reporters: Centrix, Equifax and Experian. Each keeps its own file and you can get a free report from each one. An enquiry may show on one and not the others, depending on which reporter the lender used.
2. Note the details. Write down the enquirer’s name, the date, the type of enquiry and any amount or account type shown.
3. Search the name. Check the Companies Office register and the lender’s own website. Finance arms and trading names often trade under one name but enquire under another.
4. Search your inbox for that date. Look for application confirmations, quote requests and “thanks for your enquiry” emails. That’s often where the penny drops.
5. Ask the credit reporter. If the name still means nothing, ask the reporter for the enquirer’s contact details. Credit reporters must log each access to your file, and will normally tell you about those accesses if you ask.
6. Ask the enquirer directly. Call or email the business and ask: what was the enquiry for, who submitted it, and what authority did you rely on? Ask for a copy of that authority in writing.

Step six is where things usually resolve. Either the business produces a form with your name on it from a site you’d forgotten, or it can’t, and you’ve got grounds for a correction.

Shopping for a business loan and want to keep your file tidy while you do it? Start with a quick enquiry. Asking us what’s possible won’t leave a mark on your credit report.

What if you never authorised it?

If the enquirer can’t show you a valid authority, ask it to fix the record. The government’s guidance says that where the information comes from a credit provider, you contact that provider, and it must investigate and correct wrong information. Put your request in writing, keep it short, and ask for confirmation once the correction has been sent to the credit reporter.

Then check each report again. Because each reporter keeps its own file and runs its own correction process, you may need to contact each one where the entry appears. A quick message along these lines does the job:

I’ve found an enquiry on my credit file from [business name] dated [date]. I didn’t apply for credit with you and didn’t authorise this check. Please confirm what authority you relied on, and if you can’t provide one, please arrange for the enquiry to be removed from my file and confirm in writing when that’s done.

If the business won’t engage, or the reporter won’t correct an entry you can show is wrong, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which oversees the Credit Reporting Privacy Code. The Code was updated in 2026 to line up with the Privacy Act changes that came into force on 1 May 2026, so it’s worth reading the current version rather than an old summary.

What if it looks like identity fraud?

An enquiry you can’t trace to anything, especially alongside a new account you didn’t open or a default you’ve never heard of, should be treated as possible identity fraud. Speed matters here. The Privacy Commissioner’s guidance on identity fraud stresses acting fast to limit the damage. In practice, that means:

• Freeze your credit file. You can ask a credit reporter to suppress, or “freeze”, your file if you think you’re a victim of fraud. The Privacy Commissioner explains that the initial freeze lasts 10 working days, and that a request to one reporter for an initial suppression is treated as a request to all three. You can ask for it to be extended if the fraud continues.
• Report it. Tell the Police, and contact IDCARE, a free support service for identity fraud victims.
• Lock down the obvious doors. Change passwords on your email and online banking, turn on two-factor sign-in, and check for any document you’ve lost that could be used to impersonate you.
• Watch for follow-up scams. Fraudsters sometimes ring victims pretending to be a lender, a bank or a “credit repair” service. Our guide to loan scams and red flags covers what those calls sound like.

A freeze doesn’t stop you borrowing. If you need finance while your file is frozen, you can ask the reporter to release your information to a particular lender, and it will confirm your identity first. Just tell the lender up front so the extra step doesn’t catch anyone by surprise.

How do you stop it happening again while you shop?

The best protection is to know exactly who you’re letting look at your file before you tick the box. A few habits make a big difference:

• Read the authority before you sign. Ask: does this let you share my details with other lenders? How many? Will each of them run its own check?
• Ask which steps are recorded. A conversation and an indicative quote often need no formal check. A full application usually does. Our page on shopping around without hurting your credit explains the difference.
• Be wary of “instant match” forms. If a site promises offers from dozens of lenders in minutes, your file may be what pays for that convenience.
• Keep a shopping log. Note every business you give your details to, with the date. If an enquiry pops up later, you’ll know where it came from in seconds.
• Check your file before you apply, not after. That way any mystery entry gets sorted before a lender sees it. It’s step one of our business loan shopping plan for a reason.

When you do talk to lenders, our list of questions to ask a lender includes the credit check question, so you can ask it without it feeling awkward.

What does this look like in practice?

Illustrative example. The owner of a joinery workshop in Whanganui was getting ready to borrow $120k against a commercial unit to buy a CNC router. Before applying, they pulled all three credit reports and found four enquiries from four different lenders, all dated the same Saturday in August. They hadn’t applied to any of them. A search of their inbox turned up the answer: a “compare business loans in 2 minutes” form they’d filled in late one night. Its terms allowed their details to go to a panel of lenders, and four had checked their file. Nobody was committing fraud, but the owner didn’t want four same-day enquiries to look like a string of applications. They wrote to each lender asking what authority had been relied on. Two produced the form and the entries stayed; the owner added a short note to their loan application explaining them. The other two couldn’t show an authority covering a credit check and arranged corrections. When the owner then applied for the router finance, they went through one channel, asked in advance which steps would be recorded, and ended up with a single new enquiry on file.

Ready to shop without leaving a trail?

Finding a mystery enquiry is unsettling, but it’s also a useful lesson in how the market treats your details. The next time you shop for business finance, you can choose a route that respects your file from the first click.

That’s how we work. Our enquiry takes about 60 seconds and your credit file isn’t touched just for asking, so there’s no new entry for you to puzzle over later. We don’t pass your details around a crowd of lenders, either. No spray and pray, no same-day pile of enquiries, and no week of calls from businesses you’ve never heard of. A real lending specialist reads what you’ve told us, including anything already on your file that you’d like explained, and phones you to talk through which lender genuinely suits your situation. Please fill the form in accurately: the real amount, the real purpose and any credit history worth knowing about. The clearer the picture, the better the chance the first lender we approach is the right one, and the fewer enquiries you’ll ever need.

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