when exactly does FICO start ignoring an old inquiry?

[Anonymous]

I know that FICO's models only count inquiries that are less than a year old (though they stay on the reports for two years).

But does anyone here know how that plays out precisely -- down to the exact day?

I have two inquiries dated July 2 of last year.  I was planning to do a full blown credit pull (with all the scores from all models) on July 4 (i.e. a little over a month from now).  I'd really like the pull to be as accurate as possible and therefore not to include those two inquiries since they are about to go off FICO's radar.

Is it reasonable to be certain that the July 4th credit score will NOT count those two inquiries?  If not, why?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

PS.  I realize that it's just a small number of points, inquiries don't play a big part of one's score (etc. etc. etc.). 

[CreditDunce]

It may vary depending on the CRA.   IIRC EX deletes INQs the 1st of the next month after 2 years. In other words, if you had an INQ from Jan 3, 2015, it will deleted Feb 1, 2017.    While EQ and TU delete the INQ the day after the INQ turns 2 years old.  

It is a big assumption, but it may work the same at the 1 year mark.  It could also vary by the FICO model (04, 08, etc).  It also assumes I am recalling correctly what I have gleamed for other posts.  Maybe someone else will have more definite info.

[cdtotten]

Past discussion has always seem to indicate that credit inquiries stop affecting your score after 1 year, and the effect of the inquiry fades over time, beginning around month 6. 

That being said, the affect of an inquiry or two on your score is likely less than 10 points in total, so I wouldn't stress much about it.

[Anonymous]

Thanks CD.  Yep... one possibility that did occur to me is that they base the decision on the "month" field.  Thus, to take your example of an inquiry generated Jan 3, 2015, it would continue to be counted during the next "12 months" -- i.e. the the next 12 times the "month" field changed.  Only after that -- i.e. on Feb 1, 2016, when the month field changed for the 13th time -- would the inquiry stop being counted. 

That seems like such a cumbersome method, given the simpler method of using the same M/D but adding one to the year.  And aside from being clunky, it ends up counting some inquiries longer than others, which seems arbitrary and silly.  (An inquiry occuring on March 2 would be counted for 28 days longer than one occuring on March 30.)  But you are right, it is possible.  Worse still, it's possible (as you say) that the FICO flavor tailored to one CRA for one model might use the "12 month" approach while a different model (for one or all CRAs) might use the "add 1 to the year" approach.

So, in my case, doing my myFICO pull on July 4 may result in some of the scores counting the inquiry and some not, depending on how they are counting the year.  I suppose I could wait to till Aug 2, but that delay will create other problems for me.

If anyone else has any insight, do let me know!

[Anonymous]

Hi CDtotten.  There's no question that FICO stops counting inquiries after a year.  The question is "Whaf counts as a year?"  Is it 365 days?  (And then on day 366 the inquiry stops counting?)  Or do you have to add 365 days and then add as many days more as will take you to the 1st of the following month? 

(See my discussion with CreditDunce above.)

PS.  Thanks for your feedback!  BTW, I am not stressing out, it's just raised an interesting question that I am curious to know the answer to.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone seen real indications that the effect actually does decline at the six month mark, add opposed to just rolling off after 12?

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi CDtotten.  There's no question that FICO stops counting inquiries after a year.  The question is "Whaf counts as a year?"  Is it 365 days?  (And then on day 366 the inquiry stops counting?)  Or do you have to add 365 days and then add as many days more as will take you to the 1st of the following month? 

(See my discussion with CreditDunce above.)

PS.  Thanks for your feedback!  BTW, I am not stressing out, it's just raised an interesting question that I am curious to know the answer to.

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No one knows the exact day or definition of a "year".  IMO when stated they only affect Fico for up to 1 year that at 1 year+1 day their effect will be gone.

[Anonymous]

GDale6... thanks much.  I sure hope you are right!  And certainly that approach would the simplest and most elegant.

BTW, when myFICO gives you all your scores, does it enable you to see how many inquiries FICO is including in the score?  (I am not talking about the total point impact on the score, but just how many are being included.)  If it shows me that, then I will be able to answer this question for everyone when I do my pull on July 4th.  I.e. if I can see at that time that FICO is counting my inquiries from 07/02/2014, then it must mean that they have an impact all the way up through the 1st of the following month.

Canadian-I-S... great question.  I have always heard the "declines in impact" claim, and it certainly would be reasonable for FICO's model to punish you much more for an inquiry 11 days ago than than one 11 months ago.  Still, like you, I'd be interested if anyone has ever shown this to be true.  (It's hard to test because age itself often increases one's scores, so six months later one's score could go up because of age or some other issue, not because the inquiry impact became less.)

[jamie123]

I'm pretty sure it uses the exact date as "one year". I just had my Discover card turn 1 year old mid-month in April. My score jumped 10 points at exactly the card's 1 year birthday.

[Anonymous]

That's encouraging and very hard information, Jamie.  Thanks!

You are right that the card birthday suggests that it may be related to the inquiry for the card.  (Assuming that the inquiry occured on the same day as the Discover account being opened.)  On the other hand, it could also be a different milestone: namely that you had a revoving account go from being "new" (less than a year old) to not new (over a year).  That's a different factor (how many revolving accounts were opened in the last year) from how many inquiries have occured in the last year. 

Still, being able to narrow it down to this kind of exact date data is still very helpful.  Thanks again.