Inquiries affecting credit

[Anonymous]

How many inquiries would be recommended, or the maximum number probably wanted, monthly or yearly? I've been looking for loans desperately for College and have recently had more inquiries than I would normally have wanted but just so I don't have any tremendous surprises the next time my credit score updates and I can view it does anyone know how much 1 inquiry might decrease? Or how many I would want maximum in a month or year? In about 3 1/2 months I've had about 20 inquiries. Sooo... that does sound like a lot. My idea is that maybe 1 or 2 is the most you'd want to have in a month... definitely less would be better obviously. Thanks. Also I was browsing through the forums a little and came up on something about how some scores are just estimated and aren't really my FICO score... would anyone happen to know if Bank of America Privacy Assist that tracks TransUnion, Experian.. and that other one I can't remember. If those scores are my actually FICO or just some estimated score...?

Message Edited by Scrubbicus on 09-16-2008 10:08 PM

[RobertEG]

Scrubbicus, welcome.

The question of credit inquiries is complicated, but since you are not seeking either an auto or mortgage loan, that simplifies things a bit.  Inquires for auto/mortgage loans are treated differently by FICO, but inquiries for other install loans and for CC accounts can ding you 2 or more points for pop.  They go away in a year, but stay with you until then.  So each app you are making does not improve your next score after the inq reaches your credit file.  It makes you look desparate for credit, and thus hurts your score.

A much more realistic approach is to app judiciously, and keep it to around 3 per year.

[Anonymous]

So my credit score will not have gone down much? Maybe like 40-50 points but it will make me look desperate for credit which obviously won't be too good. I'm just worried about the score since I don't plan on buying a house or another car anytime soon the only large loans I'll be applying for are for school for the next 2 1/2 years. What do you mean by:

"So each app you are making does not improve your next score after the inq reaches your credit file."

Message Edited by Scrubbicus on 09-17-2008 10:53 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

I wouldn't think that your scores would drop anything like that amount. With inqs, after you have a certain number, they just don't count for scoring any more. Also, they only count on the individual CRA's where they were entered, so you might have 8 on EQ, 3 on TU, and 9 on EX.

This doesn't mean that future (and current) creditors won't look at them and say, "Whoa!" so have a reasonable explanation ready for any future credit applications.

Inqs only factor into scoring for one year, and that's why they only display on myFICO reports for one year. But they will display on your full credit reports, and on other secondary reports from monitoring services, for two years.

[Anonymous]

Most people have a couple inquiries on the CR--no big deal there. It's when you go in with 5, 6, 8 or more that scores drop and eyebrows of potential creditors go up.