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Auto-Financing Inquiries

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Fleurdelis28
New Contributor

Auto-Financing Inquiries

Can anyone tell me how badly do a LOT of inquiries hurt your score? Back in April-May, when applying for an auto-loan, I went to a few dealerships "shopping around" for the best rates and I have A LOT (about 12-15 inquiries) within a month's time. How badly do you think it affected my score? I'm asking because I'm considering applying for a CC but I don't want another hard hit to bring it down even further so I'm wodering if I should just wait a while?


Starting Score: 538
Current Score: 555
Goal Score: 675


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Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
Lel
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Auto-Financing Inquiries


@Fleurdelis28 wrote:

Can anyone tell me how badly do a LOT of inquiries hurt your score? Back in April-May, when applying for an auto-loan, I went to a few dealerships "shopping around" for the best rates and I have A LOT (about 12-15 inquiries) within a month's time. How badly do you think it affected my score? I'm asking because I'm considering applying for a CC but I don't want another hard hit to bring it down even further so I'm wodering if I should just wait a while?


Don't worry about all those inquiries.  Auto loan inquiries that occur within a certain period (14 or 45 days, depending on the FICO version used) are scored as a single inquiry.  The 14 day window applies to older versions of FICO (e.g. Experian's v2 model, which is still widely used, and TU 98), whereas the 45 day window applies to newer versions of FICO (e.g. Equifax's Beacon 5.0 and TU 04).

 

So, if future creditors are using EQ for their credit decisions, those inquiries would only be scored as one inquiry, with minimal effect on your score.

 

More about credit inquiries is here:  http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/CreditInquiries.aspx

 

One caveat: those inquiries need to be correctly coded as auto loan inquiries in order to be de-duplicated for scoring purposes.  When I purchased a car a couple years ago, at least one inquiry appeared to be a generic inquiry with no auto loan industry designation.  The inquiry clearly came from an auto lending company, and perhaps there was some other code that didn't get transmitted through to my credit reports, but I always wondered whether this was treated as a separate inquiry.  In any case, I didn't see any discernible effect from these inquiries.

Message 2 of 7
Fleurdelis28
New Contributor

Re: Auto-Financing Inquiries

Thanks so much Lel!

 

Question, how do I know if they are correctly coded as auto loan inquiries or how do I get them all coded as such to account for one inquiry? Some of them reference the dealership's name and other's show up as bank/lending instituions name. Should I call the CRA and let them know to have it coded correctly?


Starting Score: 538
Current Score: 555
Goal Score: 675


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Message 3 of 7
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Auto-Financing Inquiries


@Fleurdelis28 wrote:

Thanks so much Lel!

 

Question, how do I know if they are correctly coded as auto loan inquiries or how do I get them all coded as such to account for one inquiry? Some of them reference the dealership's name and other's show up as bank/lending instituions name. Should I call the CRA and let them know to have it coded correctly?



If you pull your full reports directly from each CRA or from annualcreditreport, you'll see the inquiries listed. There's a column next to it that says "permissible purpose" or something like that. It should say "auto" or "automobile". Another way to check is to pull your TU and EQ FICO reports. Both reports will list all of the inquiries, but if any of the positive or negative reasons mention inquiries, then you should a total inquiry count minus those excess inquiries.

Message 4 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Auto-Financing Inquiries


@Fleurdelis28 wrote:

Thanks so much Lel!

 

Question, how do I know if they are correctly coded as auto loan inquiries or how do I get them all coded as such to account for one inquiry? Some of them reference the dealership's name and other's show up as bank/lending instituions name. Should I call the CRA and let them know to have it coded correctly?



I think you are worried about a lot of nothing. Your scores themselves are going to inhibit you more then the inquiries. Did you get the car? Are you showing a loan reporting?

 

A dealership pulls your report- to see where to send your loan. Those pulls are legal and proper.

Message 5 of 7
cd2004
Regular Contributor

Re: Auto-Financing Inquiries

I had about 6 inquiries in March 2011 and then 8 inquiries in Sept 2011, I saw no impact to my score. Actually my score went up 3pts in september a few days after the inquiries hit and I had no other changes to my report.

Current 3B scores May 2022: EQ: 806 TU: 798 EX: 797
Message 6 of 7
pj421fly
Valued Member

Re: Auto-Financing Inquiries

If you haven't bought the car yet you might want to tell the dealers to not SHOTGUN your credit app.


Starting Score: TU-691 EQ-681 EX-693
Current Score: TU-826 EQ-816 EX-814
Goal Score: 830+


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