HELOC multiple credit inquiries affect FICO score?

[Anonymous]

Five yeas ago I bought my first home.  Now my home is worth $200-203K and I owe about $75K on it.  On July 27th I went into my bank's local office and filled out an application for a HELOC equesting $110K.

That weekend I did a lot of research on HELOCs  and realized that there was more to it than I initially thought.  So on 8/4 I emailed the bank rep and said that I'd like to take between two and five weeks to think it over some more.  On Friday, 8/11 the bank rep tells me that the application had been approved for $88K and that I had to accept the offer by 8/17 or the applicaiton would be closed.

I'm concerned about this 8/17 deadline and whether or not if the bank closes my applicaiton, will that affect my credit negatively? Do they really close out apps that quickly or is he just trying to pressure me?  They can't put it on hold even for a few weeks?

I'm most concerned about how much time I have to apply with other bnaks, before I take a "multiple credit inquiry" hit.  In other words, I have read that if you are applying for a loan and you make multiple credit inquiries within a short amount of time, FICO consolidates those credit inquiries into "one " credit inquiry.  And if you wait too long between applications, it will show up as multiple inquires, which hits your credit score harder.

So I'm trying to determine how much time I have to fall within that consolidated credit inquiry zone versus having multiple hits.  This affects my timeline for making a decision to go forward with a HELOC and applying with other banks.

Any advice would be appriciated as I'm new to this. 

[MauiMan85297]

I don't think they're trying to pressure you as over time things change (rate, credit score) and they figured you inquired for a loan you either want to move forward or have gone elsewhere but a bank just won't keep a file open indefinitely.  What did you realize that there was more to it than you initially thought? Maybe your appraisal came back a little lower than anticipated as based on the rate they gave you it was an 80% LTV.

[Anonymous]

It is low LTV.  The house hasn't been appraised since I moved in so I don't know what they are basing it on.  

I have now decided to move forward, its just that I also want to apply at at least two other banks for comparison purposes.  Not sure if the first bank will hold the application open for me to do that. 

I'm still trying to determine how much time I have to fall within the FICO "consolidated credit inquires" zone, as happens with mortgage applications, before my credit gets hit with multiple credit inquires.  This was really my main reason for posting to this site, since it is all about FICO.  

[MauiMan85297]

Typically within 30 days but I wouldn't chance anymore than 21 days, it's always good to go to 1 other place to compare.