@CreditMagic7 wrote:
Thanks for making that perfectly clear. For some reason i was under the false impression that a SP was drastically limited in what DETAILS it allowed from a base (Full) report.
There ARE types of inquiries that do return limited information, so your impression wasn't completely off.
We frequently refer to HP/SP as though they are just "the two types of inquiry" - in truth, they are really a shorthand for two categories of inquiry TYPES.
In the "HP" category, the inquiry is coded to the CRA as being the result of a consumer-initiated request for credit, in a specific category of credit type.
Possible types can include:
Mortgage Loan (Mortgages/Home Equity Loans)
Bank (General loans, overdraft coverage, car loans, credit cards, some mortgages/helocs)
Finance (General loans, car loans, some mortgages/helocs, others)
Home Furnishings (Retail store loans, will see other store types as well)
Utilities and Fuel (Cell phone service, landlines, cable, electric, gas, etc)
(and more types, depending on your individual application history)
What makes any of these a "HP" is the consumer-initiated request for credit - as "credit-seeking" is considered a "scorable" item.
The type does matter - for instance for the inquiry de-deduplication in scoring for recent/multiple mortgage or car loan inquiries (assuming the lender coded correctly/consistently - they don't always), or recent utility inquiries being discounted by an underwriter (vs recent credit card inquiries).
In any of these types of inquiry, the lender does see all other consumer-initiated requests for credit from the last two years (even the ones that do not count for scoring, due to age or de-dup); but does not see any of the other inquiry types described below.
In the "SP" category, the inquiry is NOT coded as a consumer-initiated request for credit - which means it does NOT appear on reports pulled by lenders, or even most (all?) reports pulled on consumer request (myFICO/Credit Karma/Credit Sesame/Quizzle/etc), only on reports pulled by the consumer, directly from the CRA.
However, that's the only thing the inquiry types in the "SP" category have in common (non-scored, doesn't appear on lender pulls), and there several types.
First, a consumer pulling their own report - this type of inquiry will NEVER have any affect on scores, and will NOT appear on any report pulled by anyone other than the consumer. When pulled directly from the CRA, this is the ONLY type of inquiry that will show OTHER "SP" inquiries. (When pulled by a consumer through a third-party, the other "SP" inquiries generally (always?) are not shown.)
Second, a lender that you have an existing account with (credit card, loan, collections... any lender-customer relationship) can pull your report and score for an account review. That can be used to increase/decrease a credit line, offer additional credit products, or even close your account. Inquiries of this type show everything that a "HP" type pull would, but do not count in your score, or appear on any other lender's report. (These can appear as "AR"-type pulls when viewing your report directly from a CRA.) In some cases, lenders are willing to use this type of pull to increase a consumer's credit line ON CONSUMER REQUEST, even though that "should" be a "HP"-type.
Third, a lender can set parameters for a CRA to search a set of credit reports on their behalf. They could, for instance ask for a list of consumers living a general geographic area, with scores in a certain range, certain amounts of open credit lines, and certain levels of outstanding debt. In this case, the lender does NOT receive the full credit reports - just a list of people and addresses that match the search parameters, and these inquires do not count in your score, or appear on any other lender's report. (These can appear as "PR" or "PRM" (promotional)-type pulls when viewing your report directly from a CRA.) These inquiries are the source of most "pre-approved" offers via postal mail.
There are rules defining who can make which sorts of inquiries, for which purposes - while the above is a decent summary, it can get a bit more involved (what counts as a credit request, who counts as a current customer, various collections issues, incorrect coding, removing "illegally-added" inquiries, removing inquiries by asking nicely, de-dup details, etc, etc.)
EQ8:850 TU8:850 EX8:850
EQ9:847 TU9:847 EX9:839
EQ5:797 TU4:807 EX2:813 - 2021-06-06
