3 Hard Pulls in 2 mos and score drops from 700's to 632

[Anonymous]

So as the title says, back in Sept 2014 I had a score of 712 and I was graduating from a secured card to an unsecured card which required a hard pull to un secure and be given a CLI (at the time I only had 3 previous hard pulls since 2013) so this made it 4 HP's. In November I applied at walmart and old navy and was approved for both, these HP's made it a total of 6 HP's. 

A week later I get a notice from Credit Karma and Credit Sesame that my score dropped from 712 to 632 and for the next few weeks kept fluxuating between 632 and 640 !!!!!!

I was pretty upset about this even though I understand the whole "desperate for credit deal" but my credit was great with 0 lates or baddies and my score dropped as if I had missed payments and defaulted on my card LOL... (sarcasm) ok, so my point is, it then took about 5 1/2 mos to get to 732 which is where it stands now.

I read from another member here that his/her friend had a 850 and applied for a card and dropped them into the 760's (if i recall).....

Is this at all normal ? is there a rule of thumb as to how often must one apply for cards? Because i recently was applied for a Discover it card (6 mos after the inquiries and drastic drop) and was approved, this would make it 7 HP's now. I see people on here with 15 18 and even 21 HP's and have good credit. So whats the deal here? How many Hp's is one allowed per year?

[Anonymous]

I subscribe to Credit Karma,Credit Sesame, and Privacy Guard, and I notice their scoring systems score waaaay lower than the Fico 8 model many credit card issuers use. Like by 20-40 points. And the first 2 don't provide an Ex score.

The AAoA drops too when you add a bunch of new accounts along with the inquiries and that is 15% of your score. If your credit file is somewhat new the increased activity has more of an impact than if you've had credit for 10 years.

[Anonymous]

True, AAOA will drop if you don't have a long history with other cards.  But I cannot see that much of a drop over the 6 inq's?  I took a 2 point hit for 1 HP.  Maybe something new going on?  I just got approved for my Venture on Friday & the HP's showed up Sat.  I have seriously tried just about everything I know how to do to figure out their code.  When I think I have it almost figured out, someone comes in and says what you do?  So I'm still trying.  

[EddieK]

Don't use Credit Karma for scoring purposes.

[Anonymous]

When credit karma add my walmart card my score dropp 30 points and the last time they update my history is february , they not update my new credit limits and payments , so i think ck not really work. 

[joedtx]

Sometimes we can be guilty of overly watching our scores from monthly to weekly to daily, they can at times have a bit of a rollercoaster effect. Lets keep in mind your recent activity, it is natural that there would be a drop of significance based on those changes. Now, do not place too much emphasis on Credit Karma it is afterall a simulator and does not reflect your actual scores it simply provides you with what they think it might be.

Have a bit of patience and allow your new activity to mature and you will just as quickly see your score return back to the prior level as well as move upward.

[Anonymous]

Yes I am very aware of credit karma being a simulator and not a true score.... I just didnt know their score could fluxuate that much.

[SecretAzure]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yes I am very aware of credit karma being a simulator and not a true score.... I just didnt know their score could fluxuate that much.

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Yeah use it as a guide to understand what the negative and positive things are. How your score is impacted by such things. Just don't use it to tell you how big of an impact each negative or positive thing you do is. CK will also drop your score by a lot if you close your oldest account...which in reality, doesn't impact your score for 10 years.

[Anonymous]

I can't stand Credit Karma, they simply suck.  They are so far off!  At first they told me I had a thin file and therefore they could not give me any scores.  To my surprise 3 months later I get an email from them alerting me my scores have changed!  I logged on to see all of the sudden most of my information was on there now, but of course their scores are so much lower than MyFicos and individual reports from all reporting agencies. 

[SecretAzure]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I can't stand Credit Karma, they simply suck.  They are so far off!  At first they told me I had a thin file and therefore they could not give me any scores.  To my surprise 3 months later I get an email from them alerting me my scores have changed!  I logged on to see all of the sudden most of my information was on there now, but of course their scores are so much lower than MyFicos and individual reports from all reporting agencies. 

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Their job is not to provide you a FICO score but simply to help you learn about your credit and manage it better than you would with no other resource. I am thankful for it, honestly. Learning mostly by myself, it's a useful tool and the first one I learned about. Now they don't need you to enter credit card info, with your social and name and address they can provide you most of your information. It's a guide, treat it like one...don't treat it like a manual. 

Just my opinion.