topic Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period? in General Credit Topics

How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 15:24:21 GMT

I have many credit cards. However, I get turned down by too many inquiries. I only one major credit card(Discover). All the others are Merrick, Credit One,etc. I want to get a Citi or Capital One card but I am scared to apply for them due to many inquiries. What should I do?

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Adkins — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 15:35:13 GMT

Stop applying and garden for at least a year, or until your last HP ages one year. You've listed serveral subprime cards, and after a year of gardening, assuming you don't have any major baddies holding you back, you can start looking at getting better cards. Credit is a marathon, not a sprint! 😃

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Remedios — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 15:55:51 GMT

What are the reasons for your denials?

Those usually tell you what you need to do, or conversely what you should stop doing.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

donkort — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:06:34 GMT

I would say something like 3 or more inquiries within 6 months would be "too many."

Unless you're shopping for a mortgage or a car.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:55:28 GMT

Capital One has a pretty good prequalification site so you'll know when there's no point in applying. So does Amex.

I think your scores on all three bureaus should be at least mid-600s before applying (in case they aren't yet)

There are way more factors in approval than just the number of hard inquiries.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:57:52 GMT

If the reason you're being denied is for having too many inquiries, I would garden for awhile until some of your inquiries fall off. Having a lot of inquiries in a short period of time demonstrates financial instability and high risk to creditors.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

AverageJoesCredit — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 14:52:45 GMT

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

AverageJoesCredit — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 14:54:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If the reason you're being denied is for having too many inquiries, I would garden for awhile until some of your inquiries fall off. Having a lot of inquiries in a short period of time demonstrates financial instability and high risk to creditors.

I would just caution that alot of inqs in short period doesnt necessarily imply financial instability, more impatience.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 20:33:26 GMT

Garden for a year or 2 will drop them down.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

gen_zod — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 00:32:43 GMT

I was approved for a Cap1 platinum with 61 EX (660) inquires and 32 TU (656) inquiries. With about half of them acquired in a 6 month period.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

donkort — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 01:24:01 GMT

How did you get so many inquiries?

Ive had literally 100s of inquiries over the past couple of months--all of them "soft."

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 22:31:08 GMT

I am still new to this. But I don't beieve that card issuers just look at the number of inquiries. I think they look at other factors as well.

Including how many new cards you have as well as your over all payment history. Sure there are exceptions, Citi with their 6/6 rule.

Personally I try to limit the number of HP. But I don't stress over it. When I was approved for Discover last month they did a HP on both Ex and Eq. But I didn't lose sleep over it.

There seems to be several differant time periods issuers look at, 30 days, 90 days, 1 year. Consider your own Risk tolerence.

Am I will to trade a HP for a chance at an approval? Have I done enough research to know my approval odds?

Just consider if you were a Card issuer and how would you view:

someone with 2 inqueries and 2 credit cards in the last 30 days.

someone with 7 inquiries over the last 90 days and 6 credit cards over a year old.

someone with 0 inquiries, 2 credit cards 5 years old

--Who do you think has the most ecperience paying off credit cards?

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 03:20:52 GMT

It depends on lender really. Some are more inquiry sensitive than others; just like some are new account sensitive.

You have to study your lender then meet their requirements, but over all I try to stay at 4 or less in 12 months per bureau, but sometimes that goes out the window.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 16:27:07 GMT

Well if you have 20 HP's in the last year and only 2 new accounts, I imagine that they assume you're being denied and act accordingly.

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 17:15:29 GMT

Yeah, it sure doesn't help the case, does it?

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

newfossil — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 17:40:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Well if you have 20 HP's in the last year and only 2 new accounts, I imagine that they assume you're being denied and act accordingly.

But not all hard pulls are new apps. Many do HP for increases on same card

Re: How many inquiries is too many in a six months period?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 18:57:18 GMT

It's still credit-seeking behavior. Doesn't matter you're not going elsewhere to get it, it's still credit-seeking behavior.