@Anonymous wrote:
Any informed opinions on whether most lenders use a 14 day or a 45 day period for lumping inquiries? The link below says newer FICO versions use the latter.
http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/creditinquiries.aspx
This is not so much a lender-dependent issue as it is a FICO score model issue.
The newer versions of FICO in common use are:
Equifax's Beacon 5.0 score (available on this site)
Transunion's TU 04 (not available here or at the TU website)
The older versions of FICO are:
Transunion's TU 98 (available here and at the TU website)
Experian's v2 score (not readily available anywhere).
Thus, it's a mixed picture. The last I heard (about 6 months ago), lenders were still using EX's v2. I don't know if things have changed. And even though many lenders are now using TU 04, there's still quite a few who use TU 98.
So the best-case scenario in terms of mortgage shopping would be to have a lender that uses Beacon 5.0, TU 04, and EX v2, because for two of your scores you'd have the longer rate-shopping period. But if you extend your shopping beyond 14 days, you EX score may be affected.
