Inquiries - how many and how long?

[m_jonis]

Okay, I've got 8 inquiries in the past 12 months. Ironically, two are for mortgages when I was re-financing, but they counted against me twice. Once on 9/13/06 and once on 9/14/06. I thought multiples like that weren't supposed to count multiple times? Anyway, another one on March 2007 from Citibank when I applied for a CHECKING account (I don't know why they pulled my credit report when I wasn't seeking credit and have not been issued any credit). Obviously in a few months, 3 of them will drop off the 12-month timeframe (had one in August too). Is there a magic # for how many inquiries "hurt" your score? (ie, 1-3 does X damage, 4-6 does Y, etc.)? So like if it goes from 8 down to 5, would that have any impact on the score, or am I over some "magic" number (according to FICO only 1 per 12 months is "acceptable"). Also, as the inquiries age (before the 12 months), do they "affect" the score less?

[Anonymous]

First the mortgage INQs shouldn"t have and prob didn't charge against for FICO for more than 1 INQ... But they remain as independent INQs just like any others (some CCC will count them against you during their qualifying INQ. )

Second there isn't really a magic number, it seems like a lot of us have had different experiences with INQs nd hits to our FICO... I for instance have more than 13 less than 20 on all three, I didn't take any hits from the last several, but the first few hurt at about 3-4pts each.

Remember INQsstay on report for 24 months but weight is on the las 12... So don't expect them not to be there after a year.

Good Luck.

Rob