topic Re: How often is too often? in General Credit Topics

How often is too often?

bl00dymary — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:54:10 GMT

To apply for credit ? I notice a lot of posts about credit apps, but don't the inquiries hurt your score? How much does an inquiry drop a score on average, and what is considered a good time frame to space them out? Also. I recently bought a car and they hit me with quite a few inquiries for that- do they all count as one? Is it a good idea to apply for cards now -will they all fall into the grace period and seem like part of the car loan inquiries or are they reported differently?

Re: How often is too often?

fused — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:56:06 GMT

bl00dymary wrote:
To apply for credit ? I notice a lot of posts about credit apps, but don't the inquiries hurt your score? How much does an inquiry drop a score on average, and what is considered a good time frame to space them out? Also. I recently bought a car and they hit me with quite a few inquiries for that- do they all count as one? Is it a good idea to apply for cards now -will they all fall into the grace period and seem like part of the car loan inquiries or are they reported differently?

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

Re: How often is too often?

Tuscani — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:02:46 GMT

Welcome.. Please read the Scoring 101 thread.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

All auto Inqs within a 14 day period count as one (against your score only, each will still increase your overall count). The amount of points an inq will cost you depends on your overall credit picture. Spacing them out doesn't really matter as an inq that is 1 day old is scored no differently than an inq that is 364 days old. Why 364? Because FICO only counts Inqs within the last 12 months. There is also a point were Inqs no longer matter. Meaning you have reached x number so stop factoring them in the score.

Re: How often is too often?

bl00dymary — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:03:47 GMT

Sure, give the noob a link to the faq

But how often would you suggest applying for new credit?

Re: How often is too often?

fused — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:08:58 GMT

bl00dymary wrote:
Sure, give the noob a link to the faq

But how often would you suggest applying for new credit?

Ha! Do you know your three FICO scores? Any derogs on your reports? Do you have any CCs, if so, what are they and give CLs and balances on each?

Re: How often is too often?

bl00dymary — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:11:07 GMT

I see.. So I can expect my score to drop in about a month from the auto inquiries. I guess I will have to wait & see. I thought it would be a good idea to apply for a new card or two during the two week time frame- I guess I messed up there because apparently they reprt differently? I just applied for two (one approved & one declined). I hope I did not over do it. I am looking at my inquiries now and there is a lot of them from the past week.. most of them car loan related though. So will that be three actual 'hits' in all (two for the cards and one for the auto related)? Is that how it works? Did I over do it in your opinion?

Re: How often is too often?

fused — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:17:04 GMT

bl00dymary wrote:
I see.. So I can expect my score to drop in about a month from the auto inquiries. I guess I will have to wait & see. I thought it would be a good idea to apply for a new card or two during the two week time frame- I guess I messed up there because apparently they reprt differently? I just applied for two (one approved & one declined). I hope I did not over do it. I am looking at my inquiries now and there is a lot of them from the past week.. most of them car loan related though. So will that be three actual 'hits' in all (two for the cards and one for the auto related)? Is that how it works? Did I over do it in your opinion?

When auto or home shopping you will see all the inqs on your reports but FICO says they will count all of them as one. Sometimes your scores will get dinged with a new inq or new CC TL reporting but not always.

Re: How often is too often?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:20:36 GMT

bloodymary (and i will not go into the bathroom, shut the door, and say your name three times into the mirror),

i am of the school of thought that, if you want/need the credit, you might as well app it up all at once, take the hit, and let 'em all fall off at the same time the next year. of course i am the guy who is alleged to have made 42 apps in a three hour period.

my understanding is that your understanding re the hits is correct....the auto inqs and mortgage inqs will count as one if they happen within the 14 day time frame, just like tuscani said.

edited for quality and training purposes.

Message Edited by dog on 07-09-2007 10:20 PM

Re: How often is too often?

bl00dymary — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:28:20 GMT

Scores as of last week before the hard pulls were TU 666/ EQ 619/ EX 637

Badies:
I have a couple of old paid collections listed, a BK discharged in 1998 (drops off next year), a Released Tax lien that is not yet reporting as released, and a crapitol one still being disputed off of my ex (was paid & deleted from the otehr CRAs) All of these bad accounts are 7+ years old

My recent history includes 5 revolving credit card accounts all in good standing. HSBC Mastercard $3800. limit balance $75/ AU on another HSBC with a $3000 limit balance $150. $400 Orchard card- balance 0. SST Visa (wamu sold them my account ) with a $2000. limit- balance of $16. Wamu (just reapplied to them- I miss the free TU updates) credit line of $2000. balance of 0. Utilization is under 10% on all and they have never been late- but this is young history a little under two years on the oldest card. Then there's my new car loan- obviously not reporting yet. I've only recently paid any attention at all to my credit scores. They were all in the 500s just last month- so I nervous of screwing up what I have worked so hard on.

Message Edited by bl00dymary on 07-09-2007 07:28 PM

Re: How often is too often?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:36:49 GMT

dog wrote:
bloodymary (and i will not go into the bathroom, shut the door, and say your name three times into the mirror),

That's "red rum" you dork!!! Dog you crack me up!

B Mary,
Keep and eye on your reports, it always helps to know (or try to guess) where the pulls are going to happen. For example, I know that I only have 2 inq on my TU report in the last 12 months. However I have 4 on my Ex and 3 on my Eq. I'm not currently going to apply for credit, but if I were, I'd find a cc that pulls from Tu.
~lori

Message Edited by Lori344 on 07-09-2007 07:36 PM

Re: How often is too often?

bl00dymary — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:30:57 GMT

dog wrote:
bloodymary (and i will not go into the bathroom, shut the door, and say your name three times into the mirror),

Oooo.. and my high score is 666 too....

Re: How often is too often?

SoulSmilen — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:35:53 GMT

LOL Lori... it really is Bloody Mary. It goes back in time many many moons and is older than the 'redrum' from The Shining. Bloody Mary is the ghost of an evillllllllll woman.

Too funny... just bringing back the memories and remembering many times in the bathroom and flushing the toilet, saying it over and over, and then splashing the mirror with water, then my brothers banging on the door at the same time or something and scaring the beejeebus out of me!

Re: How often is too often?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:43:58 GMT

no, no, no, cla-riice. bloodymary is the thing you do in the mirror....redrum is from the shining!

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/bloodymary.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redrum

edited for quality and training purposes

Message Edited by dog on 07-09-2007 10:43 PM

Re: How often is too often?

bl00dymary — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:06:01 GMT

Ha! You are all wrong! It's a delicious drink made with spiced tomato juice and vodka with a wedge of lime. (Actually it is quite nasty- but one of the only alcoholic beverages that is perfectly appropriate to order with your breakfast! )

Message Edited by bl00dymary on 07-09-2007 08:06 PM

Re: How often is too often?

smallfry — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:09:30 GMT

The magic number is 4.