Underwriting question

dapps06 · ‎04-21-2015

I realize this can often times be case by case, and lender by lender, but I'm just looking for a general rule of thumb here based on user experience. When it comes to inquiries, do lenders primarily look over the past six months? Year? Do they look at total inquiries and ignore how old they are? I was just cleaning up my nerdy credit card excel spreadsheet and realized I have a lot of inquiries within the past six months. By the end of next month many of them will bump up to seven+ months in age, is this highly beneficial in terms of applying for new credit or is the yearly mark a bigger deal?

Also, I have a question about utilization. Overall my utilization is 23 percent. I have five cards with a zero balance, one with 8 percent utilization, and two with 78 and 79 percent utilization. When applying for credit with lenders not associated with the highly utilized accounts do they still view these as a huge deal or do they focus more on overall utilization percentage?

Edit: Oops forgot one other question I meant to ask. My highest limit, 10k for the Venture, hasn't hit my reports yet. How big of an impact will this higher limit have on future credit applications? Is one single account with a high limit enough to bring other higher limits? Do you need to show usage with this particular account for a certain length of time before the higher limit means anything, or do you benefit from the limit right away in terms of future applications?

Any help would be appreciated.

Kirmie2010 · ‎04-21-2015

Depends on their scoring model and your overall report too much to tell.

For inquries it seems some companies only care a bout 6 months back, other companies care up to a year or more.

Ive been denied due to too many inquries with 0 in the past 6 months and about 17 at just over a year but been approved with 30+ inquiries in the past 6 months as well for a different card.

Ive apped for cards and had the reason be too high of balance on accounts, overall utilzation was 2% but 1 card was at about 70%. Ive also had them decline for high balance when I had 4 cards reporting more than 40% but none any higher than 50% the rest at 0.

Ive been approved for cards that people with MUCH better credit profiles and scores were denied for. So it seems the more info you get the more it makes no sense.

So its kind of a tossup, some people may know better with a specific brand or type of card and have specific experience. Sorry I wasnt more help

*edit*

I dont know how much impact a higher limit makes but I can tell you what happen for me. All my card limits were 500 or lower. For some reason firestone gave me a 1000 limit, next 2 cards I got were higher than 500 but less than 1000. Then I started to get a few accounts (store type cards) around 1000 and prime lenders (barclay, discover) then started me out at 1500 and 1300 (my highest limits at the time) This was all over a 3 month period, so I do think having a higher limit increases your chances of your new cards starting out higher. Wow I write bad, thats hard to follow..

dapps06 · ‎04-21-2015

@japakar wrote:
Depends on their scoring model and your overall report too much to tell.

For inquries it seems some companies only care a bout 6 months back, other companies care up to a year or more.
Ive been denied due to too many inquries with 0 in the past 6 months and about 17 at just over a year but been approved with 30+ inquiries in the past 6 months as well for a different card.

Ive apped for cards and had the reason be too high of balance on accounts, overall utilzation was 2% but 1 card was at about 70%. Ive also had them decline for high balance when I had 4 cards reporting more than 40% but none any higher than 50% the rest at 0.

Ive been approved for cards that people with MUCH better credit profiles and scores were denied for. So it seems the more info you get the more it makes no sense.

So its kind of a tossup, some people may know better with a specific brand or type of card and have specific experience. Sorry I wasnt more help

*edit*
I dont know how much impact a higher limit makes but I can tell you what happen for me. All my card limits were 500 or lower. For some reason firestone gave me a 1000 limit, next 2 cards I got were higher than 500 but less than 1000. Then I started to get a few accounts (store type cards) around 1000 and prime lenders (barclay, discover) then started me out at 1500 and 1300 (my highest limits at the time) This was all over a 3 month period, so I do think having a higher limit increases your chances of your new cards starting out higher. Wow I write bad, thats hard to follow..

Ha...nah it was easy to follow, thanks for the response. Though you didn't clear anything up for me haha. These questions are probably way too general but I was curious so figured I'd ask. Maybe others will be more experienced in these matters than the both of us.

dapps06 · ‎04-21-2015

Bump.

One last shot at getting some of this clarified.

Anonymous · ‎04-21-2015

@dapps06 wrote:
I realize this can often times be case by case, and lender by lender, but I'm just looking for a general rule of thumb here based on user experience. When it comes to inquiries, do lenders primarily look over the past six months? Year? Do they look at total inquiries and ignore how old they are? I was just cleaning up my nerdy credit card excel spreadsheet and realized I have a lot of inquiries within the past six months. By the end of next month many of them will bump up to seven+ months in age, is this highly beneficial in terms of applying for new credit or is the yearly mark a bigger deal? Depending upon the lender, INQ does matter. Most lender seems okay with 3 in the last 6 months if your overall profile is much stronger. Personally I would try to limit them in a 12 months period. Please note that INQ older than 12 months have no affects on your FICO and at two years mark they will fall off. In these days there is a tendency of Automated Lender's System generated approvals that generally factors heavily on your FICO. Upon manual review of an application, the UW tend to look at so many other factors and then scrutinize INQ if on the heavy side.

Also, I have a question about utilization. Overall my utilization is 23 percent. I have five cards with a zero balance, one with 8 percent utilization, and two with 78 and 79 percent utilization. When applying for credit with lenders not associated with the highly utilized accounts do they still view these as a huge deal or do they focus more on overall utilization percentage? If your TL are not hidden then YES they can see them (Reported balance). Your FICO also factors your utilization into it but your CR also indicates your CL and last reported high balance as well.

Edit: Oops forgot one other question I meant to ask. My highest limit, 10k for the Venture, hasn't hit my reports yet. How big of an impact will this higher limit have on future credit applications? Is one single account with a high limit enough to bring other higher limits ? Do you need to show usage with this particular account for a certain length of time before the higher limit means anything, or do you benefit from the limit right away in terms of future applications? I personally prefer manual evaluation than System generated approvals as it incrases the ability to use your history and clear things up in myour favor. Management of TL is most important thing to UW. Upon any Recon, you will be asked about history and management of TL. Yes it does in fact increases your possibility to obtain higher CL on future cards.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am not an expert and hope I was able to clear some of your questions. Lets see what other chim in.