topic Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter? in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

Uncle_Money — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:11:51 GMT

Hey Guys,

Question on inquiries. I have a solid credit history but I have many inquiries on each bureau. Between 12-14 on each to be exact.

At what point do inquires no longer matter? There are simply many things I utilize that require credit checks so the number isn't going down anytime soon. If the history is strong enough, does it outweigh the inquiries?

Thanks,

Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

fused — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:15:15 GMT

I'm moving your post to the Understanding FICO Scoring forum.

--fused, myfico moderator

Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

haulingthescoreup — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 04:43:52 GMT

@Uncle_Money wrote:
Hey Guys,

Question on inquiries. I have a solid credit history but I have many inquiries on each bureau. Between 12-14 on each to be exact.

At what point do inquires no longer matter? There are simply many things I utilize that require credit checks so the number isn't going down anytime soon. If the history is strong enough, does it outweigh the inquiries?

Thanks,

UM

For scoring purposes, I think they stop counting after 5 or maybe 6 per bureau.

For credit approval, it's going to depend on the lender. For instance, store card lenders might not even blink, while bank card lenders might escort you to the door. That's very dependent on the individual lender and how persuasive you are.

Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

llecs — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 14:34:19 GMT

It's definitely a YMMV.

Being a score junkie, I've pulled my FICO the day before and the day of my app just to see the impact. In my early days, I had up to 35+ inquiries on any given CRA, and those were inside a year too. I noticed no score change after adding more. After I wised up and realized that having 30 inquiries isn't a good thing, I went cold turkey and eventually they all went to zero. Then I would do the pulls to see the impact. I've gone from 0 to 1 and 1 to 2 on plenty of occassions with no score impact but that's not always the case. I measured a 5 pt drop another time going from 0 to 1. Couple of times I've lost 2 or 3 points from going to 1 to 2. 5 points is the most I've ever lost. I think the law of diminishing returns comes into play and after a while, you will not feel the score impact. Now these examples are for FICO. For FAKO, if anyone cares, I've lost 10+.

Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

Booner72 — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:14:11 GMT

When I went from 2 to 3 inquiries, I got a 7 and 9 point drop (EQ 7 TU9) - but that was about two weeks after the 3rd inquiry hit. I'm still watching closely to see if the last inquiry will ding me. (#4). Though how the heck can I know since I only get a SW every 7 days.

Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:46:46 GMT

@Booner72 wrote:
When I went from 2 to 3 inquiries, I got a 7 and 9 point drop (EQ 7 TU9) - but that was about two weeks after the 3rd inquiry hit. I'm still watching closely to see if the last inquiry will ding me. (#4). Though how the heck can I know since I only get a SW every 7 days.

DW saw the same impact, 7 points on EQ (695 to 688) when she went from 2 to 3 inquiries back in 2010. And, to underscore that 7 point drop, she got those 7 points back when we successfully got one of the inquiries recoded from a hard to soft.

Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

Cotton_Britches — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:21:47 GMT

How were you able to have the inquiry recoded from hard to soft?

@Anonymous wrote:
@Booner72 wrote:
When I went from 2 to 3 inquiries, I got a 7 and 9 point drop (EQ 7 TU9) - but that was about two weeks after the 3rd inquiry hit. I'm still watching closely to see if the last inquiry will ding me. (#4). Though how the heck can I know since I only get a SW every 7 days.
DW saw the same impact, 7 points on EQ (695 to 688) when she went from 2 to 3 inquiries back in 2010. And, to underscore that 7 point drop, she got those 7 points back when we successfully got one of the inquiries recoded from a hard to soft.

Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

Booner72 — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:06:21 GMT

I can't get an inquiry off, either. I tried everything in my power to get Qwest to remove an inquiry. I disputed with Qwest, disputed with all 3 CRA's-- no luck. In fact, I think the credit reporting agencies just through my envelope in the garbage because they didn't even ever write back about it.

Re: Inquiries: At What Point Does It No Longer Matter?

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:37:28 GMT

@Booner72 wrote:
I can't get an inquiry off, either. I tried everything in my power to get Qwest to remove an inquiry. I disputed with Qwest, disputed with all 3 CRA's-- no luck. In fact, I think the credit reporting agencies just through my envelope in the garbage because they didn't even ever write back about it.

Unless the creditor had no permissable purpose for making the inquiry, then there is no way to dispute or remove an inquiry. They can only be coded by the company who made the inquiry. I don't believe the CRAs will not even allow you to dispute an inquiry.

You need to contact Qwest to dispute the inquiry or ask them to recode it.