How long will a hard inquiry affect my score? It says it will be on file for 2 years

[danny4l]

Last week I applied for a BOA secured card and I was denied.  On my report, it now says that the inquiry will continue on file till March 2015.  How much will this hard inquiry affect my score right now and up until March 2015?  I was just trying to do the right thing and open up a line of credit that would report to the three bureau's but they said I have too many medical collections and I would need to take care of them first.

Thanks

[guiness56]

A hard inquiry stays on your report for 2 years but only factors in scoring for one.  I would say you may lose 1 - 5 points initially.  It should not impact your score every month meaning you should not lose points each month.

[danny4l]

Even though the score is not damaged like you are saying, can a lender still use a hard inquiry against you?  For example, can they say "What is this?"

[guiness56]

In that respect, yes, a lender can use it against you. 

[danny4l]

Do you recommend no more hard inquiries for me until march 2015?  I just wanted to open up another secured card in addition to my capital one because I felt that two cards reporting were better than one.

Is there a formula for how many hard inquiries one should have and how many will make your report look negative?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I just applied for a capital one secured card and was approved. It dropped my score by 4 points.

[guiness56]

Each CRA has their own determination of what is too many inquiries.  So does each creditor. 

Some will say one is too many, others 4 or 5 in a year time span.

[danny4l]

The whole process is so confusing.  When your credit is not good, they tell you to improve it but it seems like you get punished trying to improve it sometimes.

[chasmith]

Hard INQs remain on your report for two years, but only affect scoring for one year.

[signguy17]

I just got a new CC from my CU and the hard pull didn't change anything but the addition of another CC cost me 2 points but that shouldn't last long.......I hope.