topic How Many Points Is An Inquiry Worth in Understanding FICO® Scoring

How Many Points Is An Inquiry Worth

Scuba — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:31:37 GMT

Does anyone know if a credit card inquiry will cost from 3 to 5 FICO points, does an inquiry for an auto loan cost the same 3 to 5 points? I am thinking of testing the water for an auto loan and if declined, I will re-apply in February or March. By then, I should have recovered from the 3 point hit.

Re: How Many Points Is An Inquiry Worth

Junejer — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 06:24:44 GMT

If an inquiry is going to cost you points, then it will cost those points regardless of what type of company pulls the hard.

Re: How Many Points Is An Inquiry Worth

llecs — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:28:08 GMT

Remember, depending on the CRA, auto inquiries within a 14 or 30 day window count as one inquiry. So if you rate shop and app 15 times during a 2 week period, then you only have one inquiry as read by FICO (but your report will show the 15).

Inquiry damage is overrated. It is lumped into the "new credit" portion of the FICO formula. 15 of my last 20 inquiries resulted in no score change when pulling the FICO report the day before and the day after. I did see damage to my CR for the first time this week when I added 3 inquiries on EQ and I lost 5 points off EQ. Most damage occurs when the score is closer to 750 or if your "new credit" isn't so bad (mine was not good or good).

Most people think that adding a CC will improve their score. Unless your util is super high or if your mix of credit is bad, you'll likely see a score drop up to the 20-25 point range. Some see that score drop and mentally link it back to the inquiry, which isn't true.

As Byrd mentioned, FICO doesn't care if it is a CA inquiry, a CC inquiry, a loan inquiry, a mortgage inquiry, a car inquiry, etc. An inquiry is an inquiry.

Re: How Many Points Is An Inquiry Worth

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:28:44 GMT

I agree that scoree damage is overrated.

Unfortunately Chase Protection ID and TrueCredit recognize the inquiries performed by Collectors in their FAKO scoring.

So will do lender during a manual review.

I would care more about not to have CA hard inquiries at any time.

Re: How Many Points Is An Inquiry Worth

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:03:15 GMT

Just to add to this, when shopping for home loans I had about 5 inqs. over a 3 month period. Ultimatley I ended up losing 10 points, but 2 month later it bounced back. From what I have seen, if 3-10 points is going to effect you that much, you may want to hold off until you are in a better position. If not, then don't worry too much about it as they seem to bounce back pretty quick even though technically they are still figured into your score for a year if I remember correctly.

Re: How Many Points Is An Inquiry Worth

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:49:31 GMT

JR just to make it clear. You may have gained your points back but it didn't come your inquiries having any less of a penalty, they cause the same deduction for a full year.

Re: How Many Points Is An Inquiry Worth

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:54:43 GMT

Since mortgage inquiries are "de-duped" (only one within a given time frame counts for scoring), perhaps they were initially scored individually, and then the system caught up and ignored a few. Just a guess, though.

But as DIG said, we've got it on good authority that an inq hurts the same amount for a year, and then not at all. The hurt from the new accounts that result from inqs does fade --at one month, three months, six months, and a year. So there's another possibility.

That's the problem with trying to attribute score changes to specific actions. There's usually enough other stuff going on that it's hard to isolate individual effects.