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I was checking my credit scores via credit karma and discover and american express statements and noticed that my Equifax score had 2 hard inquiries while transunion and experian had 0. I am looking to buy a home and apply for a mortgage in the upcoming months and have been putting off getting a new cell phone plan to avoid hard inquiires.
Does this mean if I can find a carrier who pulls transunion or Experian, my score will not be effected because the highest total inquiry on Equifax is 2 with transunion/experian with 1, or does the extra inquiry count as 3 total hard inquiries across all accounts when the mortgage lender pulls my real FICO score?
Inquiries land on just the bureau your report is pulled from. If you are planning on applying for a mortgage, it is not advised that you take on any inquiries leading up to that mortgage application. Lenders will pull all 3 of your scores for a mortgage, so they'll see any inquiries you have on any bureau, unlike a credit card which may only pull 1 bureau for example.
On the phone thing, there are 'plans' now that are month to month, there will be no credit check.
I personally dumped my expensive contracted plan when my contract was over and pay a monthly plan through AT&T. Its $60. Was called GoPhone but now its Prepaid. I have it set on auto pay. I set it all up on the net and never stepped foot in AT&T. Just added the sim card to my open iPhone.