What is THD/CBNA and why is it on my credit report?

Written by: Romy Ribitzky
• Updated •4 min read
This date may not reflect recent changes in individual terms.
Young man looking up why thd cbna is on his credit reportImage: Young man looking up why thd cbna is on his credit report

In a Nutshell

Do you have one of The Home Depot’s credit cards in your wallet? If so, you may have seen THD/CBNA on your credit reports.
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THD/CBNA may appear on your credit reports if you have one of three retail credit cards from The Home Depot.

The Home Depot cards are issued by Citi, which also goes by CBNA or Citibank North America. Here’s why THD/CBNA may be on your credit reports and what to do if it’s showing up but you’ve never had a Home Depot credit account.

What does THD/CBNA stand for and why is it on my credit reports?

THD/CBNA stands for The Home Depot/Citibank North America. It could be on your credit reports as a hard inquiry if you’ve applied for a credit card from The Home Depot or if you’ve been added as an authorized user on one of these accounts.

Hard and soft inquiries

Citi offers three The Home Depot retail credit cards.

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

If you’ve applied for one of these and authorized the bank to check your credit, you may see a hard credit inquiry on your credit reports. A hard credit inquiry can stay on your reports for up to two years, so it may be showing up even if you didn’t recently apply for the card.

Alternatively, if you tried to prequalify for a credit card from The Home Depot, you might see a soft credit inquiry on your credit reports. A soft inquiry is only visible to you and doesn’t affect your credit scores.

How to remove a THD/CBNA hard inquiry from my credit reports

If you applied for one of the three The Home Depot cards, you probably won’t be able to remove the hard inquiry from your reports. It should fall off your reports after two years from the inquiry date.

But what happens if you spot THD/CBNA on your credit reports and you didn’t authorize the credit pull? Dealing with an unauthorized hard inquiry on your credit can be stressful and scary.

There are steps you can take to help protect yourself and your credit if you find yourself in this situation. Consider these five tactics.

  1. Get proof. Contact the company that pulled your credit and ask for proof that you authorized the inquiry.
  2. Report the suspected fraud. Head to the Federal Trade Commission’s identitytheft.gov website to document and report the suspected ID theft. You may also want to consider filing a police report.
  3. Freeze your credit. To prevent identity thieves from further abusing your personal financial information, you may want to freeze your credit. Contact each credit bureau separately. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to be approved for new financial products while the freeze in in place. And while this won’t retroactively protect your credit, it can help stop identity thieves from opening accounts in your name while the freeze is in effect.
  4. Speaking of contacting the credit bureaus, you can request a free fraud alert from them.
  5. Dispute the unauthorized inquiry with the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus are required to investigate and remove any information that turns out to be inaccurate.

Authorized users

You may also see THD/CBNA on your credit reports if you’ve been added as an authorized user on any of The Home Depot’s credit cards.

As an authorized user, the account activity is reflected in your credit reports as well. Getting added to an account as an authorized user is one way you can build credit (especially if the primary accountholder has stellar credit). You’re allowed to make purchases up to the primary accountholder’s credit limit, but you’re not officially responsible for repaying the debt.

The downside is that if the primary cardholder misses a payment or has a high utilization rate, there could actually be a negative impact on your credit.

If you were added incorrectly as an authorized user to someone else’s THD/CBNA account, you should contact the credit card issuer and ask it to remove you from the account.

What other retail credit cards are issued by CBNA?

Citibank issues retail credit cards to approximately 83 million people. If you carry a retail card from one of the following brands, it’s likely issued by Citi, and you’ll probably have CBNA listed somewhere on your credit reports:

  • Best Buy
  • L.L. Bean
  • ExxonMobil
  • Shell

What to do if there’s an account you don’t recognize on your credit reports

It’s important to routinely check your credit reports to watch out for mistakes or even outright identity theft.

You’re entitled to a free copy of your credit reports from all three major consumer credit bureaus periodically through annualcreditreport.com.

Whether you decide to keep an eye on your credit with Credit Karma or use another service, consider adding credit monitoring to your financial routine. Credit monitoring can be a useful tool in helping you identify and take action on certain errors or report suspected fraud you might spot on your credit reports.

When it comes to any suspicious activity, the sooner you take action, the more likely you are to minimize any lasting damage to your credit profile.

About the author: Romy Ribitzky is a senior editor at Credit Karma specializing in autos, auto insurance, credit, personal loans, savings and tax. Romy is an Edward R. Murrow Award–winning journalist and a marketing leader, having hone… Read more.