Is it true several mortgage inquiries within a month only count as one hard hit?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I'm new to this.

I was speaking with someone at Ditech and she wanted to start a mortgage application. I said I didn't want to do that yet, because I needed all my ducks in a row before I allow a hard hit on my credit. (I've just started this whole process)

She said you can have up to 5 inquiriies, all mortagage related of course, and they will only register as one hard hit.

I wanted to believe her, but thought I should find out for sure.

Is that true?

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

[onstar]

Yes. Sorta.

Two things:

(1) It depends on the scoring model used by the lender. In most cases, the 30 day rule holds. Supposedly some models now count 45 days and some lenders still use models that count 14 days. Regardless, I would still stick to as few days as possible between your first and last pull. You usually have to explain all your recent credit pulls, and having the days closer together makes your letter of explanation much easier.

(2) The inquiries must be the same type. I know you wrote "mortgage inquiry" but just want to reemphasize. I had borrowers taking this too far and doing auto loan inquiries thinking that they would not count against them since they did a mortgage inquiry.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much! This information is very important for me!

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

I've had three pulls from the same company and my score didn't budge at all. Good luck!