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I'm getting ready to apply for 2 or 3 cards. Before apping, I have been reviewing my reports. There are 4 inquiries on my reports and are all within a 5-10 day period in October. 2 of the inquiries were made to finance a new auto purchase and 2 were made to compare interest rates for a home refinance.
My question is would these 4 inquiries count as only 1 or 2 since they were all related to interest rate shopping and are these inquiries likely to impact any type of credit decision from a CCC?
Hmm. Kinda depends. Do you have four inquiries on all three cr's?
If you've got one on each, you're fine...if all four inq's show up on all three cr's you might want to wait before you seek out more...
EQ & TU show 4 and EX shows 3. My understanding is that if you're "rate shopping" that the scoring models count all inquiries within 15 days or so as only 1 inquiry. However, a hard copy of the reports does show each of the separate inquiries, so I'm not sure what the real impact is to apping for a new card (especially since the inquiries don't relate to CC apps)...
@jclark1183 wrote:EQ & TU show 4 and EX shows 3. My understanding is that if you're "rate shopping" that the scoring models count all inquiries within 15 days or so as only 1 inquiry. However, a hard copy of the reports does show each of the separate inquiries, so I'm not sure what the real impact is to apping for a new card (especially since the inquiries don't relate to CC apps)...
Not for CCs...only for car and mortgage inquiries. And that window is 14-30-45 days depending on the FICO version the lender uses.
Per impact, it's a YMMV. I've been denied due to only having one inquiry. And back in the day when I went app crazy, I had 20-30 inquiries each on EX and EQ and was still getting approved.
@jclark1183 wrote:EQ & TU show 4 and EX shows 3. My understanding is that if you're "rate shopping" that the scoring models count all inquiries within 15 days or so as only 1 inquiry. However, a hard copy of the reports does show each of the separate inquiries, so I'm not sure what the real impact is to apping for a new card (especially since the inquiries don't relate to CC apps)...
No no. Rate shopping only pertains to mortgage and auto loan inquiries spread within a one month or two week span, respectively. It strictly does not pertain to revolving types of credit. Multiple inquiries for revovling credit is seen as a red flag.
Yeah, that confirms my understanding . . . all 4 of the inquiries related to auto financing (2) and a home refi (2).
So, if I understand things correctly, in terms of scoring a report these should count as 2 HI's, although the credit reports will still list them separately.
I have not yet apped for any CCs, just wondering if these would raise any sort of red flag as they are the only 'blemishes' on my reports.
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YMMV........when in doubt, wait at least 6 months and don't app for anything within those 6 months. After 6 months, than app for a CC if you are looking to get approved with a decent CL.
Jclark - Your understanding is correct in how the inquiries are seen for SCORING purposes. However, as you already noted they all still appear on the CR and if you are applying for a credit card, the lenders system is set to reject you with 3 inquiries in the last 6 months, it will see 4 and reject. A reconsideration phone call and manual review with some companies may be possible.
And as others have noted, some credit cards may be okay with large amount of inquiries, depending on the strength of the rest of your credit profile. We can only hazard a guess at each companies computerized standards based on collective experience. But the days of manual review of each application went the way of the rotary dial telephone a long time ago. (Except at a few credit unions / banks which I don't recall but have been mentioned in the forums).
@Anonymous wrote:47
scott